


Making It Right

by Demsit



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Action, Adventure, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Friendship, Mentions of Cancer, Multi, No animals were harmed in the making of this fic, No flames please, Romance, UNIT, dysfunctional brother-sister relationship, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship, fair bit of violence, mentions of past adventures, mentions of the Brigadier, some gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 20:19:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 46,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8299502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demsit/pseuds/Demsit
Summary: Everyone has a good and a bad side, which side one goes with the most defines ones' character. Then there are those who tread the line between both, perceived as good souls by one half while the other thinks them despicable creatures. The people UNIT can be seen as any of the three, so could the Bannerman Road gang in a way. But one thing they both have in common, they both have Lethbridge-Stewart women involved. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Chief Scientific Officer at UNIT, and her estranged daughter Jemima 'Lyric' Lethbridge-Stewart of the Bannerman road gang. But when a new threat appears, can the two groups work together to save the world? Can each wrong be made right once more? And what does this threat have to do with Jemima's biological father?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing but the OCs and plot, everything else belongs to Doctor Who and Big Finish Productions respectively.

Name: Jemima Fiona 'Lyric' Lethbridge-Stewart  
Age: 23/24 years  
Personality: Kind, caring, stubborn, loyal, compassionate, honest, intelligent, rational, hopeful, sincere, protective, insecure, reckless concerning herself and accepting.  
Appearance: Soft dark brown eyes, shoulder blade length golden blonde curls, lightly freckled fair skin and a swirl like birth mark on her left shoulder blade.  
Race: Human with energy controlling abilities.  
Hobbies: reading, telling stories, practising her abilities, DJing, mixed martial arts, yoga, dancing, singing, playing video games and archery/shooting (Not animals!)

* * *

August was perhaps Jemima's favourite month of the entire year. Summer was drawing to a close but it had all the splendour of summer with autumn just tainting the corners as September began to grow closer. All the colours, the smells, the warmth. All of it still present in all its summery glory but the greens of the trees were being to golden and some flowers to wilt, the point where summer began to die and autumnal life was being born. But it was at night that truly held Jemima spellbound. On a clear night, when all the stars in the night sky seemed to shine just that little bit brighter, Jemima felt as if she could look up and see each star beaming down at the Earth and all its inhabitants. 

It was on such a night that something peculiar happened. Jemima was at Thirteen Bannerman Road, home to her close friends, Sarah Jane and Sky Smith, and long term crush, Luke Smith, with her other close friends Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer. They were all sat in the Attic, the alien supercomputer known as Mr Smith was out and so was K9 the robotic dog of the Smith family. 

Clyde and Rani, a couple for five years and counting, were sat side by side as they watched Sky play a game of table football against her brother while their mother tinkered with a little alien gizmo, deep in concentration. Jemima, however, was sat by the window, staring up into the abyss blankly. She had been unusually quiet that day, absent minded almost which was quite concerning given their line of work and the day they had just scrapped through.

"Lyric...? Lyric?" Rani sang softly, trying to get her friend's attention with a wide smirk as she got up and drew closer to the older girl. Jemima was only a year older than Rani, Clyde and Luke after all. Jemima didn't respond, causing Luke and Sky to pause their game briefly. "What's up?" Rani asked the blonde, sitting in front of her. Still no reply.

"Lyric, you ok?" Clyde asked her, just as Rani reached out and placed her hand on Jemima's knee. The action caused Jemima to jump back to reality from her rather morose thoughts, and she rubbed her face tiredly saying.

"Sorry, sorry...Zoned out, what we talking about?" She had a small smile on her face as she looked to her friends, expecting someone to tease the living daylights out of her or make a comment on her absent-mindedness. 

"'Zoned out'? You were well and truly out of it, what's up? You had us worried." Rani told her with a slight chuckle and Jemima gave a small, almost sheepish, half smile as she dropped her gaze to her old beaten sneakers.

"Before you called me out I'd just came out of a job interview." She stated with a dejected shrug and a downcast expression on her usually calm and content features. 

"How did it go?" Sarah Jane asked, looking straight at the young woman she had grown to think of as another part of her little family. 

"It went well until the end when they thanked me for my time and application but I didn't meet the needed requirements." Jemima admitted staring disheartened at her knees as her fingers meshed together, thumbs tapping against each other. It was a gesture she had picked up from her grandfather, the great Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Her one true ally in her family before he died. "Seventeenth one this month." she muttered disappointed before Rani squeezed her knee and suggested.

"Maybe you weren't destined to win this one...What was it for?"

"IT technician at the estate agent in town." Jemima answered flatly and Luke gave a slightly frustrated sigh, he knew Jemima was worried about her finances and she knew what her previous job had meant to her. He hated seeing her look to forlorn and tired, she only ever looked like that when she thought no one was looking but he saw through her disguises every time. 

"Oh come on, you got an A star in your A levels for Computer Science-" The ex-Oxford student protested but Jemima cut him off at that, her tone dry but a small smile lit her face at his attempt of protesting.

"Guy they hired had a degree in Computer Science." It halted Luke's protest and Clyde said.

"There's always next time, Lyric. Anyway, you've got worse things to worry about." Jemima cocked an eyebrow at the artist expectantly with Sarah Jane while Rani looked giddy and Sky was as excited as ever, she had grown up a bit since Sarah Jane had adopted her and grown into a beautifully charming seventeen-year-old human girl. Jemima and Sky had an understanding the others didn't quite understand; it was almost as if the pair were linked by something other than their close bond.

"Should I be worried?" Jemima asked and K9 scooted over to her saying.

"There is no need for alarm, Mistress Lyric, Master Clyde is merely peeking your interest." Jemima smiled slightly wider at the tin dog and gently brushed her knuckles against to cool metal on the side of his head fondly.

"Thank you, K9, but if Clyde is referring to me babysitting for the next two weeks, I'm not worried about it." 

"Who are you babysitting again?" Sky asked as she and Luke went back to their game.

"Victoria, Kayla and Pippa Rothschild. My goddaughters." Jemima smiled at the thought of the three little girls. Their mother had been a dear friend to both her and her grandfather and the trio of girls reminded her of their mother more and more.

"Does that mean you won't be able to help if an alien drops by for a cuppa?" Clyde joked with her and Jemima shook her head, her small smile fading when she looked back out the window at the sky.

"Sarah Jane, you might want to see this." She told the team leader who looked at her then went to the window asking.

"What is it?" Then Mr Smith's warning alarms started blaring out the supercomputer. "Mr Smith?" Sarah Jane turned to the Xylok who reported promptly.

"Unidentified matter approaching the Earth's surface, time till impact, thirty seconds. Twenty-nine, twenty-eight..." He continued to count down as Sarah Jane, Luke, Sky and their friends rushed to grab their jackets just as Jemima's phone rang. 

"Come on Lyric, we haven't got time!" Sarah Jane called to her when she saw Jemima staring at her phone, her expression torn-almost pained.

"Go ahead without me, I've got to get home." Jemima conceded finally and Sarah Jane nodded, hurriedly ushering the others into her car before driving off to the crash site as Jemima accepted her call. "Hello you."

"Auntie Mima!" Three voices chorused in her ear as she watched her friends drive off, a sad smile on her tired and worn features. 

"Oh hello darlings, let me guess. You're sitting on my front door step with Daddy waiting to be let in? Or has Brigadier let you in?" She asked, her feet moving of their own accord in the direction of her own home. As much as she wanted to run off into god knows what kind of danger with her friends and meet whoever or whatever that falling object was; Jemima had to put her girls first. They were as good as her girls. She didn't live far from Bannerman Road, only a couple of roads away in fact on Cavendish Court, and it was a short walk but as Jemima took step after step, she felt something. Something change, like something was very wrong, something...off.

Meanwhile, in the Tower of London, a certain older blonde in a dark navy suit and small zebra heels was making her way towards the labs of the UNIT base to find her assistants as the military personnel made preparations to move. Their scanners had picked up the flying object as well but couldn't identify it either. 

"Ready, Osgoods?" She asked as she walked in after knocking. The pair looked at her in slight surprise, for their boss only ever needed both of them in the field when it was bad. They nodded in sync before one grabbed a silver case and the other grabbed their phones from beside their computers.

"Any new information about whatever this thing is?" The blonde asked, looking at one particular Osgood. 

"Only that whatever it is has landed in a little park in Ealing, Ma'am, according to the trajectory in which it was falling."

"Until we get to the scene we won't be able to gather any other new information, Ma'am." The other Osgood informed the blonde who nodded, her brisk strides echoing in the corridor above the din of the UNIT personnel in action.

"Do we know the population round the crash site?" She asked her assistants, ascending a small flight of stairs and out a door towards a group of cars. 

"Round three hundred and thirty thousand..." The Osgood pair shared uneasy look when they got to one of the cars. Their boss turned to them, looking worried by the uneasy looks her assistants were sharing.

"What?" She asked them and one Osgood poked the other forward slightly.

"When we were looking at the population we found two things," She began as they clambered into the car to begin the race against time to get to the crash site. "One was that Sarah Jane Smith lives in Ealing close to the crash site and the other..." She trailed off as her phone bleeped and she checked it. "First squad has secured the area but there doesn't appear to be any damage." The other Osgood checked her own phone and reported the findings of the second squad; the sight of a green Nissan Figaro had been found along with the Bannerman Road gang.

"Of course. Dad did tell me about her." The blonde muttered under her breath, more to herself than the Osgoods as they began to head for the park. The Osgoods looked at one another in silent agreement not to reveal the other thing they had found out unless it was necessary.

Meanwhile, Jemima was sat in her living room, one goddaughter on either side while the youngest was curled up in her lap. She was staring out the window at the sky as the three little girls watched the film on the telly, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, while her mind wandered to the questions she often asked when she wasn't with her friends. Were they safe? Were they alright? Was Clyde cracking bad jokes? What danger were they facing this time? They circled her mind like vultures would their kill until a small voice from her right interrupted them like tires screeching on a quiet street.

"He killed Cedric! No! Auntie, Wormtail killed Cedric!" Victoria, the eldest of the girls at nine years old, cried in distraught outrage and Jemima gently brushed the little girl's springy mahogany curls away from her lightly tanned features. 

"I know, I know, sweetie, but we all know that Wormtail gets his comeuppance in the end. Now quieten down and lets watch the rest of the film." The blonde told the little girl softly, a warm smile on her face as Victoria turned back to the TV as Brigadier, Jemima's pure black Labrador, tottered in and curled up round his master's feet, his mate not far behind him. Poppy was a Rough Collie and Brigadier's mate, as well as guardian angel dog to those her mistress adored. It was Poppy that sensed it first as she looked to the window and began barking loudly and fiercely. "Poppy, Poppy....Hey, hey, what is it girl?" Jemima asked, quietening the collie as she shifted her youngest godchild into her place on the sofa as she rose to investigate. 

"Auntie what's wrong?" The middle child of seven, Kayla, asked rising to her hands and knees on the sofa.

"I don't know, sweetheart, stay here with your sisters while I check it out." Jemima told the trio as she began to leave the room. Then, the lights and TV went off. "Oh come on!" Jemima cried in exasperation. This was the third power cut her neighbourhood had experienced that month.

Then Pippa, the youngest girl at two years, began to cry and Jemima returned to the girls, making soothing noises and picking up the small child. Gently bouncing the crying child, Jemima began hunting for the torch she usually kept nearby only for Brigadier to paw at her leg, the torch clutched in his mouth. She bent down and accepted the torch with her thanks as Pippa began to quieten down, much to the relief of the dogs and her sisters.

"Alright, lets see what fuse has blown this time, eh?" Jemima asked her youngest godchild gently before gesturing with her head for the other two to follow her outside. Something wasn't right and Jemima didn't want to leave her girls on their own. Once outside, Victoria held the torch so the light was directed at the fuse box while Jemima balanced Pippa on one hip as she examined the fuse box. "Huh." Jemima hummed thoughtfully with a small confused frown.

"Huh what, Auntie?" Kayla asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes groggily.

"Huh no fuse has blown just been switched off." Jemima reported back before switching the fuse back on, the lights in the house flooded the living room with light once more, and scooping up the tired little girl on her other hip. Kayla yawned sweetly and rested her head on Jemima's shoulder, nuzzling her angelic face into the soft blonde curls that cascaded over her shoulders and down her shoulder blades. "Come on, Viki, I think it's time you three were in b-" Jemima stopped talking when she crossed the threshold of her house as a small crash came from the kitchen.

She gently deposited Kayla and Pippa on the steps of the stairs, Victoria sitting between them and holding them close, and pressed a finger to her lips in a gesture for silence. Jemima grabbed the torch and got Poppy to guard the girls while Brigadier stuck close to her side like a stealthy shadow. Treading carefully, the pair were focused on the kitchen, Jemima holding the torch as if it were a baseball bat while Brigadier was ready to bite their intruder if necessary. 

"Hello?" Jemima called uncertainly, wanting to make sure that it wasn't one of her neighbours coming to check on her and the girls, but no answer came. "Who's there? Mrs Granger? Mr Trent?" She called again but still no answer came. Pressing her back to the wall beside the doorway into the kitchen, Jemima had the vague feeling that if her torch had been a hand gun she could have passed for a female James Bond, before whipping round into the doorway with the torch on. There was nothing there. Frowning, Jemima switched on the kitchen light and turned the torch off only to find one plate from the drying rack in pieces on the floor. "Girls it's safe, there's no one here." She called into the corridor and Victoria called in a loud whisper.

"Auntie, Pippa and Kayla are asleep! Shush!" Jemima smiled ruefully and put the torch on the side, her hands then rest on her hips as she walked back to her girls, whispering.

"Oh the cheek on you missy. Come on, lets get you up to bed." Victoria nodded before picking up her youngest sister, as Jemima had taught her, while her godmother picked up a sleeping Kayla. Unbeknown to both the little family and the large group of alien hunters in the local park, a long figure cloaked in a shroud of darkness stood in silent vigil over the little house, a dark malicious smirk the only indication of emotion on the dark beings paper like features...


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Jemima was getting Victoria and Kayla up for their breakfast while Pippa was still sleeping. The blonde had, not that she was aware of, received ten messages and four missed calls from Luke and Rani and soon had both on her front door step looking rather panicked and concerned. Jemima stared open-mouthed at them for a moment when she had opened the front door, still clad in her pyjamas with her hair a mess.

"What's going on?" She asked them once she had snapped out of her stunned silence at their appearance.

"You didn't message or call us back. We were worried." Rani told her and Jemima invited them inside, going into the living room as Rani closed the door behind her. She found her phone wedged down the back of the sofa and saw the messages and missed calls.

"Again, why so many messages? What happened?" She asked then noticed Clyde and Sky weren't with them. "Oh god, where's Clyde and Sky?!" She asked beginning to panic but Luke shook his head.

"Currently with Mum at home, the alien we saw coming down last night escaped before we or UNIT could get to it." The tall young man informed the slightly shorter blonde who relaxed slightly and asked.

"Why act like a mass murderer's escaped from prison then? You had me worried for a minute." 

"It landed in the park two streets away from here but it didn't leave any visible traces of its presence. We think it may be hiding round here somewhere-UNIT think the same." Rani explained and Jemima paled, remembering what had occurred last night.

"Oh no...Viki! Kayla!" Jemima called into the kitchen and both girls shuffled sleepily into the living room. "You two remember Luke and Rani, right?" She began kindly to the two girls who nodded with shy waves of greeting. "You remember what happened last night, the power cut?" They nodded again and Victoria giggled.

"You did your James Bond impression with the torch 'cause you thought someone was in the house." Jemima gave Rani and Luke a small sheepishly apologetic shrug before Pippa started crying and Kayla covered her ears at the noise. 

"Viki, Kayla, keep Luke and Rani out of trouble while I get your sister." Jemima chuckled, dodging Rani as she tried to swat at her friend, before ascending the stairs and collecting the little girl. Pippa quietened at once and clung to her godmother, pressing a good morning kiss to her cheek before snuggling close to her. "Good morning to you too and don't get too comfy, you're walking when we get down the stairs." Pippa giggled softly, for a two year old she was quite smart, and happily tottered into the living room with her godmother's assistance. She hadn't quite got walking down to a fine art yet. 

"Hello Pippa! Remember us?" Rani beamed at the little girl who beamed in return and cried.

"Wuke! Wani!" And Luke scooped her up into his arms, causing her to squeal and giggle in delight.

"Pippa! Noise!" Kayla whined and Jemima gently ghosted her hand over Kayla's head, gently rubbing soothing circles with her thumb when her hand rested on her shoulder. Kayla wasn't really a morning person, something she had inherited from her father.

"Viki and Kayla told us about what happened last night. Do you think...?" Rani asked with a pointed look but Jemima shook her head vigorously.

"No, definitely not. Not in my house thank you very much." She protested, folding her arms with her face set with an icy fury at the mere thought of their intruder being the alien. "I would have felt it for goodness sake!" 

"I know but you had the girls occupying your mind perhaps you missed it. Maybe Sarah Jane could do a scan just to make sure." Rani suggested, hands raised in surrender and Kayla tugged on her godmother's pyjama trousers gently to get her attention. Jemima softened at once and Kayla asked.

"Auntie, if the lady Rani is talking about can help find whoever broke your plate, maybe it would be a good idea?" Victoria nodded in earnest agreement piping up herself.

"Yeah, we could help too! We can look for clues too!" Jemima struggled to think of something to say, looking from the two little girls to her friends then back before looking to her dogs who merely watched the exchange before Poppy pawed her knee and nodded slightly.

"Alright," She agreed reluctantly as the girls cheered and Rani and Luke gave her reassuring smiles. "But no messing around and you let Sarah Jane do what she needs to do without any trouble, alright?" She warned the girls who nodded at once before running back into the kitchen to finish their breakfasts. "You two eaten yet?" She asked her friends and Rani nodded, Luke however looks sheepish. "Kitchen, now. I'll put the kettle on and make you some toast." Luke, still carrying Pippa, marched into the kitchen with a mockingly stern face, causing the two young women to chuckle after him as they followed.

"Nice PJs by the way-"

"Oh can it paper girl." Jemima shot back with a small smirk as Rani sat beside Victoria at the kitchen table. Over tea and breakfast pleasant chatter was shared between the group, all completely unaware of the disguised presence in the back garden observing them like a hunter would its prey.

An hour and a half later, after many a squabble between Luke, Rani and Jemima, Luke gave Jemima and the three sisters a lift into town before heading home to inform Sarah Jane of the blackout the previous night. 

"Auntie Mima, do you still fancy Luke?" Victoria asked Jemima as they walked towards the shopping centre. Jemima halted abruptly at that and gave her eldest goddaughter a shocked look. "I can tell you do, you're always smiling round him and your eyes light up when you talk to or about him." Victoria continued, making Kayla pull a disgusted face while Pippa napped in her buggy. 

"I-I...Victoria, I don't...I have never..." Jemima tried several times to voice her protest before blushing crimson and began walking again, muttering. "Is it really that obvious?" It must have been if a nine year old was stating it. Victoria and Kayla nodded as they entered the shopping centre. "Right, your dad told me that Kayla needs new school shoes and her highness in the pram needs some new trousers as she's worn holes in most of her knees. She's only just turned two how could she have done that?" Jemima looked to the younger girls for answers and Victoria stated plainly.

"Our little sister is very clumsy. She keeps falling over." Jemima smiled slightly at that and shook her head.

"She may be bright but she's a little slow on walking without aid, is that what you mean?" Victoria nodded frankly and Jemima chuckled, "Blimey, you are your father's daughter. Blunt as a stone when it comes to the flaws of others." Victoria shrugged happily and Kayla held onto Jemima's hand as they walked through the busy shopping centre. "Alright girls, stay close to me please." Jemima told them and they moved closer when the crowds became thicker and rowdier. People were pushing and shoving, trying to get through to different shops, and some were completely oblivious to the struggles others were facing with the current of the crowd. Jemima managed to drag all three girls into the right shop and quickly checked them to see if they were alright.

"Auntie, I don't wanna go through that again." Kayla told her tearfully and Jemima gently ghosted her hand over her head while wiping her cheeks with the other hand.

"It's ok, it's ok. Hopefully by the time we're done the crowds will have died down, ok? We'll hang about in here for a little while if we have to, ok?" Kayla nodded before Jemima looked to the pram where Victoria had been stood only to find the girl gone. "Viki? Viki?!" Panic began to rise in her chest, nausea planted its seed in her stomach.  _Oh god, she was here a minute ago!_ Jemima's panicked thoughts screamed as she rose and looked round rapidly. "Victoria!? Where are you!?" The little girl didn't answer her name.

"Viki!?" Kayla called looking round as well as Jemima checked under clothing rails and display tables near them. Victoria wasn't anywhere in sight. 

"Oh my god...Oh this isn't happening, this so isn't happening!" Jemima grumbled as she grabbed the pram with Pippa securely inside and scooped Kayla up so she was sitting on her shoulders. "Keep an eye out for your sister, Kayla, please." Kayla nodded and kept calling for her sister as Jemima asked other shoppers if they had seen Victoria. One had, said that she had seen her walking off with a young man with dark brown hair, tanned skin and bright blue eyes, out of the shop and back the way they had come. "Kayla, remind me to give your sister the stranger danger talk again when we get her back." Jemima told the middle child who nodded and held on tightly as they plunged back into the seemingly never ending stream of people.

Once outside the trio were nearly blown over by the strongest winds they had ever experienced. They couldn't have been natural, not for Britain anyway. Jemima managed to stop Kayla's head hitting the ground when they went over, but Kayla screamed anyway when she saw the source of the winds.

"Holy sh-" Jemima stopped herself from swearing when she saw the source and what was around it. "Victoria!" She yelled, the child in the centre of a ring of soldiers, all with their guns trained on the child. 

"Block off this segment of the street, get all civilian away from the target." A voice barked orders over the turbulent winds, a voice that Jemima recognised at once without any difficulty. She looked towards the source as she struggled to get to her hands and knees against the force of the winds and the wind in her own lungs was knocked out of her at the sight. There, short blonde hair whipping round her hard features, stood Kate Stewart, head of UNIT and Jemima's estranged mother.

"Oh Christ...!" Jemima muttered and quickly reached for Kayla who managed to crawled under her aunt for protection, Jemima wrapped her arm round Kayla to hold her close while quickly gripping the pram and unstrapping Pippa. Gathering the toddler into her chest to protect her, Jemima watched as a small number of soldiers began ushering and helping people to a safer distance and two came over to her. She shook her head and yelled over the winds. "You don't understand! The little girl over there-the one with all the guns pointing at her-she's my goddaughter! I can't leave her! I can't let your men hurt her-Please!" She pleaded with the soldiers, one of whom gently edged closer to hear her properly and to protect the trio from the winds.

"Don't worry, miss, we've got the threat contained." The older one, a middle aged man by the look, said, completely disregarding what she had said.

"That threat is my goddaughter! I can't let you hurt her!" Jemima snapped at him, beginning to get desperate to get Victoria away from danger. "Viki!" She bellowed above the wind towards her eldest godchild, "Viki please!" She begged, Kayla and Pippa both beginning to cry at the tone Jemima was using. They had never seen their usually strong and bubbly godmother like this. Desperate, it didn't suit her at all.

"Miss please-"

"Get those civilians away Captain!" Kate ordered the soldiers, not having seen who they were. Her main priority was to get whatever this thing was to stop and leave the planet. Even if its appearance was something that was shaking her on the inside. The form of a child for goodness sake!

"Victoria Angela Louise Rothschild!" The winds suddenly cut short and Jemima saw Victoria turn slowly towards her voice...


	3. Chapter 3

Jemima shakily rose to her feet, Kayla and Pippa clinging to her, watching an unnervingly malicious smirk form on Victoria's pale features. She was almost as white as a sheet of paper, completely unlike the soft glowing complexion her mixed heritage gave her. Nor were her eyes with warm caramel tone that was always alight with joy and amusement. They were blue-ice blue if Jemima had to pick a shade. Victoria didn't look like their Victoria.

"Oh god..." One of the closest soldiers muttered and Jemima felt her nausea from earlier stir. Whatever was happening to Victoria had something to do with the plate and the blackout the other night. 

"Viki? Viki what are you doing? You had Auntie very very worried." Kayla told her sister hotly through her tears and Jemima gently eased Kayla closer to her body.

"I'm sorry, Auntie," Jemima nearly dropped Pippa. That voice. That voice was not the sweet yet straight forward voice of her goddaughter. It was dark, gravelly; like a thousand chalkboards being scratched with nails. "But Victoria isn't here." 

"Get down!" Another voice snapped and all took cover as Victoria's hand shot out and a beam of black lightning-like energy shot straight at Jemima, Pippa and Kayla. Jemima tucked Kayla and Pippa securely against her before curling down over them, a lilac coloured translucent sphere encasing all three of them. Gasps and screams of shock and horror erupted from spectators and Kate barked, shaken from her stunned stupor.

"Captain Carter, get all civilians out of the area! Now!" The soldier a short distance from the trio in the sphere nodded and quickly scrambled to his feet getting others to do the same and get people away as Victoria erupted into hysterical maniacal laughter, it sounded like train wheels screeching along a track, before the black bolt of energy faded.

"Oh this is fun, you certainly are the one I've been looking for. It's just a pity I had to get this pathetic little girl firs-"

"Don't you dare insult my goddaughter and let her go whatever you are!" Jemima snapped, cold hard fury in her expression. It was a family trait, first sign of danger or offence against one of the family and the rest were up in arms. Which wasn't very favourable for the attacker. Victoria's captor chuckled darkly before tilting its host's head to the side sweetly, looking back at the soldiers around her before giggling with all the sugary sweetness it could muster.

"Humans, so predictable. Shoot first, questions later, damn the consequences if one little girl dies to get rid of the bad guy, so be it." It trilled and Kayla sniffled softly before sobbing.

"Auntie, I want Viki back. I want Viki." Jemima looked down at her other two godchildren and crouched down to hold Kayla tighter to her. 

"Miss, you and the children need to get back." One of the soldiers told her before he went flying four feat away, withering in pain as black lightning surged through him.

"Leave him alone!" 

"Take aim!" A male voice barked.

"No!" Both Kate and Jemima cried and Pippa began to cry loudly. That seemed to do something to Victoria's captor. Victoria dropped to her feet, no longer hovering in mid air, looking a little disorientated.

"Pippa...?" She murmured, her own voice returning to the present, pressing a hand to her forehead before gripping her head, thrashing about slight with a strangled cry. "No!" The other voice was back and Kayla called.

"Viki! Please...I wanna go home!" 

"No! I am not Victoria!" Victoria screamed and Kate intervened, saying.

"Victoria, if you can hear me, my name is Kate Stewart," Her voice was soft and soothing, calming and Jemima would have normally mentally flinched back from the tone if she wasn't so worried for her goddaughter. "I'm here to help you, you need to listen to me-"

"No! I am not Victoria! I am Desmondaio Altortrex, assassin of the Pantheon of Discord not some stupid little earth girl-"

"Then let her go!" Jemima told him firmly, an icy tinge to her tone that was more than enough of a warning. It was the same tone her mother used when dealing with people she didn't have much patience with. Apparently her daughter was the same.

Victoria gave her the darkest glare that had ever been witnessed on those usually smiling features, just as a blood freezing scream was ripped from the young girls' throat. A great hulking mass of crackling ebony rushed from the girls small body, hovering in the air for a moment before plummeting to the ground near Victoria. Colour returned to the nine year old's skin, her eyes were their usual shade of caramel but wide with fear and panic, as she fell to her hands and knees, panting like a wild animal.

"Oh thank goodness..." Jemima breathed in relief and Kayla cried.

"Viki!" Victoria looked up, seeing the soldiers with their guns and then seeing her godmother and sisters.

"Kayla! Pippa! Auntie!" Viki gasped and pushed herself up, running unstably towards the four. Jemima quickly strode forward, Kayla by her side and Pippa on her hip, before tumbling to her knees to intercept the little girl.

"Oh thank god...Thank you...thank you..." Jemima whispered holding her close, running her free hand soothingly through the springy Afro, and pressing firm but gentle kisses of relief to Victoria's temple. 

"Auntie, crushing me and Pippa." Victoria told her aunt with a slight smile when Jemima pulled away and nodded, apologising quietly as she tried her hardest not to cry. Kayla then opened her arms to her elder sister, looking rather sheepish, before grinning when Victoria threw her own arms round Kayla, then both her sisters when Pippa was on her feet. Then all three were quickly deposited behind their godmother when Desmondaio chuckled darkly at their reaction. UNIT snapped back into action, guns all trained on Desmondaio.

"My, my." Desmondaio hummed unpleasantly in thought, "How very touching." 

"What do you want, Desmondaio?" Kate growled at the alien, very conscious of the fact that the younger blonde was squaring up for a fight if necessary. That was not something she was going to let happen, not on her watch. Desmondaio turned his head slowly towards Kate, an unsettling smile on his white as a sheet features, his piercing ice blue eyes staring straight into the elder blonde's soft dark chocolate brown orbs. It was probably one of the most unsettling experiences Kate Stewart had experienced to date.

"What I want is of none of your concern, Ms Stewart." Desmondaio drawled at the leader of UNIT before turning back to the younger blonde, who was still glaring at him with sharp cold hard fury in her expression. "Your father sends his greetings, my dear, farewell for now." Then with a small rumbled of the ground beneath their feet, Desmondaio vanished and Jemima calmed at once.

"Auntie...?" Victoria and Kayla looked up at their godmother when they noticed her hands trembling ever so slightly. Jemima flashed them brave smiles that they bought before taking Pippa and Victoria's hands and suggesting softly.

"Come on, I believe we have some shopping to do. We can go get some tea and cake afterwards if you like?" Victoria nodded and let go of her godmother's hand in favour of wrapping her arms round her waist. Kayla caught Jemima's hand and Pippa giggled slightly as Jemima nearly tripped over her own feet while trying to cope with three children and no hands. "Oh this isn't fair, I've no defence against you three it's terrible." Jemima chuckled when they got to Pippa's pram and the toddler only needed a little assistance getting in. 

Kate watched the interaction between the small family unit as her scientific team took readings and scans for energies they could identify. She honestly hadn't recognised the blonde until she had opened her mouth and a tsunami of memories had smashed into her mind like a brick wall. That young woman was her daughter, her little Jemima, and she had three little girls-whether they were her own or she was just looking after them, Kate didn't know. Not yet anyway.

"Osgood," Kate muttered to her assistant who turned to her at once. "Do you think you will need to scan the child? Or the young woman?" She asked quietly, managing to drag her eyes away from the four to look at her colleague. Osgood looked to the small family unit and nodded slightly.

"To make sure that Desmondaio left no lasting harmful traces or damage to both of them. Though I highly doubt he did anything to the young woman with that barrier and all." 

"Lyric!" A voice called and a small group joined the four girls. 

"Hey, you guys ok?" Jemima asked intercepting Luke's hug as he practically lifted her off her feet in a hug.

"Yeah we're fine, you scared the hell out of us." Sky told her, waiting impatiently for her brother to let her go so she could hug their friend.

"Yeah sorry about that but I wasn't leaving Viki with that..." Luke released her as she forced herself to swallow the angry bile rising in her throat, "Horrid thing inside her." 

"You were still pretty reckless, Lyric, concerning Pippa and Kayla. What would have happened if you couldn't get your shield up in time?" Sarah Jane scolded the young woman before hugging her as Sky released her and hugged the girls instead.

"You know that wouldn't have happened, Sarah Jane, and I know. I'll make sure it never happens again, to any of them." Sarah Jane rubbed Jemima's back gently for a moment before releasing her and Kayla giggled slightly with Victoria when Clyde appeared with Poppy and Brigadier on their leads, looking worn out and exhausted. "Crikey, did my canine counterparts give you a good run for your money Clyde?" Jemima chuckled and Rani gently batted her arm with a small smirk.

"How do you manage?" Clyde asked her as he let go of the leads. The two dogs bounding over to their mistress who knelt down and fussed them affectionately before they were petted and hugged by the girls. 

"Excuse me," The Osgoods chorused as they approached the group. 

"Sorry to interrupt-" Petronella Osgood apologised sincerely.

"But we're the Osgoods-" Bonnie Osgood introduced themselves to the group.

"And we'd just like to scan both of you," They gestured to Victoria and Jemima in sync, "To make sure everything's alright on the inside." They explained and Victoria looked to her godmother for permission. Jemima nodded at once after scrutinising the two scientist, though you couldn't really tell from the way they were dressed.

"Alright, just hold still for a minute." The Osgood with the bow tie told them and held up a small device. A small beam of green light shot out from the top of the device and scanned Jemima from head to toe, it made her tingle as if she had pins and needles in her entire body until it was finished.

"That was quite possibly the strangest thing I've ever felt." She stated afterwards with a slight chuckle, making her apprehensive goddaughter relax a little.

"Yes, it does make you tingle for a little while but it won't last long." The other Osgood with a long multi-coloured scarf smiled before her partner turned to Victoria. Victoria hid behind her godmother, peering out shyly at the two women a little older than her shield. Kayla did the same while Pippa just playing happily with Poppy's tail, trying to catch it.

"Viki, Kayla, they won't hurt you;" Jemima paused, giving the Osgoods a meaningful look while her eyes flashed a warning at them. They seemed to understand, giving visible nods with reassuring smiles to the little girls, before Victoria edged out slightly and noticed the bow tie. She giggled softly and said shyly.

"You're wearing a bow tie." 

"Bow ties are cool." The Osgoods chorused and Victoria nodded, coming out a little more to look up at her godmother triumphantly, hands on her hips saying smugly.

"See, Auntie? Bow ties are cool!" Jemima and her friends chuckled softly, waiting patiently as Osgood scanned Victoria and nodded when the results came back clear.

"Good to go, Miss." The Osgoods chorused before Brigadier snorted slightly pawing at his mistress's leg, his lead locked in his mouth. 

"Alright, alright. Are we ok to leave?" Jemima asked the Osgoods, picking up the two dog's leads and the handles of the pram. The Osgoods looked at one another before a voice said.

"After answering one question," Jemima went rigid at the voice for a whole different reason than before, "What does Desmondaio want?" Jemima shrugged, completely clueless, before saying, her voice void of any emotion.

"I have no clue and now if that's all, I'd like to get back to what we were doing before this mess started." 

"There's no need to be so cold, I only asked a question." Kate told the younger blonde, coming to stand beside the Osgoods.

"Last time I saw you was five years ago and we had the biggest argument we had ever had, forgive me if I'm still a little frosty about it." Jemima added the last part of her statement sarcastically and Poppy nudged her knee gently. Kayla scratched her behind the ears to keep the dog occupied. Kate inhaled silently, trying to think of some way to defuse the tension in the atmosphere, before saying.

"Understandable, it was a difficult time for all of us."

"Just a bit." Jemima agreed reluctantly before there was silence between the group before Sarah Jane said.

"Good to see you again, Kate." Kate nodded with a small smile, her eyes briefly leaving Jemima to look at the older woman.

"And you, Sarah Jane. Sorry about the hostility last night, protocols must be maintained and all." Kate told the older woman who smiled slightly and waved away the apology before Clyde said.

"Ok, no one's asking this question and it's really annoying me." He looked between Kate and Jemima before asking. "How do you two know each other?" Kate raised an eyebrow at her daughter who in did the same in retaliation. Then it hit the group.

"No way." Rani stated gesturing between the two. "You never said your mum was head of UNIT, Lyric, that's-"

"The reason why I never said, Rani." 

"Ashamed or embarrassed?" Kate asked her daughter who gave her a flat look, shooting back promptly.

"Neither, actually." 

"Still cool." Clyde told his friend who shook her head and turned Pippa's pram round. 

"No it's not." She told him, "Come on girls, we've got things to do." Victoria nodded with Kayla before Jemima began to walk off with the girl in tow, back into the throng of shoppers. Luke looked from Jemima's back to Kate's calm and collected face, there really was a strong resemblance between mother and daughter, before following the girls and dogs...


	4. Chapter 4

"Lyric! Lyric wait up!" Luke called as he jogged after her and the girls, Poppy and Brigadier pulling at her wrists with their leads to get her to stop. Jemima stopped and turned, her expression softening when she saw Luke jogging.

"Crikey, we've made you do exercise when we aren't running for our lives." She joked halfheartedly and Luke gave her a rueful smile before scooping up Kayla and putting her on his shoulders. 

"You're going to need help with two dogs, three kids and the shopping to deal with." He told her and she rolled her eyes affectionately before muttering.

"What would I ever do without you, Luke?" Her voice was rich with warmth and gratitude as she turned back to the pram and let Luke take Poppy's lead, Brigadier staying by Jemima's side. The others watched the pair walk off again, at a slower and less brisk pace than before, just as Sky face palmed herself and Rani nodded in agreement with the teen as she declared.

"Are they deliberately trying to be so painfully dense to each other's feelings?"

"Seven years of friendship, seven years of fancying each other and they still think the other isn't interested." Rani grimaced and Clyde suggested.

"Maybe they're just friends and the crushes went away?" Rani, Sky and the Osgoods looked at one another before Sky face palmed herself again and Rani asked the scientific pair.

"Can you use that thing to check he has a brain in there?" Petronella Osgood shook her head, her scarfed twin smirking slightly as Clyde held up his hands looking offended.

Kate on the other hand watched Jemima and her little group fade into the throng of Londoners going about their daily commute, a sharp little twinge in each beat of her heart. She had hoped that time apart would help heal what damage their last argument, the argument to end all arguments as Gordy had called it, had done. Apparently not, it appeared to have made it worse if anything.

"Seven years, looks like she's been very patient." She stated casually and Sarah Jane smiled sadly.

"The girls and her time with us has changed her, Kate."

"So I could see. She isn't as reckless as she used to be." Kate countered and Sarah Jane chuckled slightly and shook her head.

"She isn't when she has the girls or any of us with her."

"Her protective streak won't allow it." Sky chimed in with a small grin that grew when her phone pinged with the tone she had assigned for Jemima. "Speaking of not allowing something, I've got to remind Lyric not to let Luke come shopping with her and the girls ever again."

"What's he done this time?" Clyde asked with a smirk as Sky quickly asked the very same question.

"He keeps reeling off facts about different fabrics." Sky snorted into laughter while Clyde looked embarrassed, Rani burst into laughter and Sarah Jane chuckled softly, shaking her head at her son.

"Ma'am," A soldier addressed Kate as he came over. "The Prime Minister is waiting for a report." Kate nodded to him and said.

"Of course, I'll be right there." The soldier nodded, saluted and left. Sarah Jane shifted uncomfortably and Kate turned back to the group. "We better go, it was good to see you again, Sarah Jane. Rani, Clyde, Sky." She bid them farewell and turned, leaving with the Osgoods in tow after one hurried goodbye and a more casual, at ease farewell.

"Wonder why Lyric never talked about her mum." Rani pondered out loud and Sarah Jane told her.

"Don't even think about it, Rani, Lyric will tell us when and if she's ready, not before." 

Meanwhile Luke watched as Victoria and Kayla helped Jemima pick out some trousers and jeans for Pippa, who was currently being bounced on the young man's knee. To an outsider it would look almost like a young couple and three children and both Luke and Jemima would both vigorously deny feelings for each other while the girls would giggle madly.

"Ok, so we have Kayla's school shoes and are about to get Pippa's trousers, do you need anything Viki?" Jemima asked when they had decided on the right items to get. Victoria shook her head before asking.

"Can I go wait outside with Brigadier and Poppy?"

"Not after what happened half an hour ago, no." Jemima told her flatly and Victoria nodded in fairness. Her godmother had a point.

"Auntie, I'm hungry." Kayla told her and Jemima checked the time. It was nearly lunch time.

"I swear your tummy clock is getting more accurate each time you come stay with me, Kayla." She chuckled fondly, gently placing her hand on Kayla's bare cranium. Whenever Kayla and her sisters came to stay with Jemima it always coincided with their father being away on a business trip and with Kayla's chemo appointment, much to the heart ache of their godmother. 

"Lunch is on me since you made breakfast for me." Luke told her and Jemima protested most strongly at once. She couldn't ask him to do that, not only would she feel guilty but she would feel the need to repay him somehow and it annoyed her greatly when she couldn't think of a way to do so. "I insist, you look like you need a good cup of tea after this morning, Lyric." 

"I'm not sure if that's an insult or a sympathetic observation." Jemima told him as he shifted Pippa onto his hip and let her play with his neck scarf. 

"Sympathetic observation, mate." Luke chuckled and she gave him a small smile as they went to the check out to pay for their items then left, re-joining their canine friends.

"Do I look like I need a cup of tea to you, Brig?" The blonde asked the ebony Labrador who whined slightly and licked her nose, an affectionate habit he had obtained as a pup when his name sake had gifted him to his mistress. "I take that as a yes, you soppy thing." She told him before being licked by Poppy on her right cheek. "Alright I get the point." she untied the leads from the post and took Victoria and Kayla by the hands, Luke strapping Pippa back into her pram with ease now the child was lightly dosing in the summer sunshine.

"So..." Luke began after a five-minute comfortable silence as they left the shopping centre to find a cafe for lunch.

"So?" Jemima replied curiously, a slight sense of dread sparking into life. Oh she hoped he wasn't about to ask what she thought he was going to ask.

"Your mum's head of unit-"

"Don't even go there." Jemima told him with a cringe, he asked what she thought he was going to ask. 

"Come on, Lyric, it's a pretty big thing to hide from us. All those things we've seen, all those thing your mum has seen, surely you could have talked about it. Or at least told us who she was and that aliens were a part of your family history-"

"Luke," The pained note in her voice, the way her expression was pinched and her entire stance should have been enough to make him drop the subject but he didn't.

"Your granddad, your mum and now you, unit is in your blood and yet instead of helping them, you help us-Like your granddad did when Kaagh and Mrs Wormwood tried to resurrect Horath, remember?" He carried on until noticing the pain clouding Jemima's eyes. Oh bother, he had stepped in it twice. First by not shutting up and the other by mentioning her grandfather. It had been five years and the mention of him was enough to make her melancholic still. 

"Auntie?" Kayla asked her aunt carefully, always the more sensitive to their godmother's emotions than her sisters, while moving closer. Brigadier gave Luke a flat look, as much as a dog could, for upsetting his mistress while Poppy just snorted at the human boy.

"Sorry, Lyric, foot in mouth disease." Luke told her but Jemima shook her head.

"No, don't be. I just...It's complicated, me and my family." The only relation where it wasn't complicated was with her step-grandmother, Doris her grandfather's second wife, and she had died not long after the Horath incident. "Unit and aliens only contribute to how complex my family is." Luke nodded slightly, he still got confused with social objectives even after all his time on Earth but he knew enough to understand what Jemima meant.

"How about an uncomplicated lunch and some ice cream afterwards?" Luke asked and the young girls cheered hugging Luke as they continued to walk.

"I think you've gained two admirers for that little stunt." Jemima chuckled at him and he wrapped his free arm round her shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"Just so long as I'm back in your good books." She elbowed him in mild jest with a small smile, a tiny almost invisible blush on her cheeks, as she muttered.

"Don't push your luck, boyo." Luke grinned down at his slightly shorter friend before they found a little Italian cafe to have their lunch in.

Later that evening, when Jemima was finishing washing the dishes from dinner, the house phone began to ring. 

"If that's the bloody landlord again, I'll wrap this phone cord round his sodding neck next time I see him." She muttered irritably to herself as she dried her hands and answered the call. "Hello?" She asked and there was the sound of papers rustling then silence. "Hello? Anyone there?" She asked again, an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine, before a familiar voice said.

"Hey Mima."

"Oh thank god it's you." Jemima breathed in relief, "After today I thought you might be someone else. How's work?" She asked with a relieved smile, Kayla trudging in sleepily with her teddy gripped in one arm, the other slung round Poppy's neck to keep herself upright. 

"A pain in the rear end as usual, how are the girls?" Jemima paused, covering the speaker with her hand to whisper to Kayla.

"Go get your sisters, it's daddy." Kayla brightened up and quickly scrambled away with her teddy to get her sisters, before her godmother answered the question. "They're fine, Viki's as blunt as ever, Kayla's getting tired easily but she's still her sweet self, and Pippa's her bubbly self...She reminds me of Lydia more and more each day, they all do." She gained a sad chuckle from the girls' father, Darren, before the telltale thunder of little feet came hurried down the stairs, Brigadier and Poppy barking along with it. 

"Daddy!" Victoria yelled and Jemima chuckled softly, watching as Poppy came in, Pippa clingy to her neck until Jemima scooped her up and into a chair. 

"I think they might just want to talk to you, Darren old boy." Jemima giggled when Victoria nodded vigorously while Kayla bounced up and down happily.

"I would never have guessed, Sherlock, now put me on loud speaker so I can talk with my little girls." Darren ordered her and she chuckled, doing as she was told.

"Yes, sir, now speak to your daughters while I clean up my living room." She told him, leaving the room with a soft smile on her face as she heard the girls excitedly and happily chat to their father, Pippa saying the odd word, giggling and clapping cheerfully. She began to clear away Victoria's drawings and colouring pencils, pick up and put away some of Pippa's toys, and folded up Kayla's baby blanket, catching snippets of the conversation as she passed the doorway until the doorbell rang and she went to answer it. 

"Hel-" Jemima stopped midway through her greeting, her warm and soft smile slipping from hr features into a look of pure and utter shock. Stood before her, clad in his army uniform with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder, was her brother. Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Two family reunions in one day...


	5. Chapter 5

In her office in the bowels of the Tower of London, Kate tried to focus on the paperwork in front of her. Normally she would be on top of this, working tirelessly until Osgood would come in and drag her home, but that day had been anything but normal. Had it really happened at all, she kept asking herself. Seeing her daughter had been an honest shock to the system. Kate had assumed after her father had died, Jemima had moved out of London-moved as far as she possibly could to get away from any reminder of who she was and her family. 

Kate set down her pen, an exhausted sigh passing her dry pale lips as her now free hands rubbed her face tiredly. Since when had she become so tired? Or was it just an effect of dealing with a child possessing alien who had some connection to her daughter? She didn't know, couldn't tell either way. 

Glancing at the watch on her wrist, Kate peered round at the window, checking there was no one in the corridor to observe her, before opening a drawer in her desk and taking out a small photo frame. It was old, a bit battered in places but mostly in good condition, Victorian in style with its gilded edges and elegant floral pattern. In it was a photograph of her younger self with longer hair tied back in a loose ponytail, dressed in casual jeans and a baggy T-shirt, and one of her more carefree and cheerful smiles gracing her features for the camera. 

Her son Gordon (or Gordy as he was affectionately and commonly known as), hoisted up on her hip with a beaming toothy grin on his face as he clung to his mother, was dressed in beige shorts and a dark moss green jumper that fitted him perfectly, his mousy brown mess of hair brushed out of his eyes by his mother moments before hand. 

Beside her on the floor with a gentler, shyer and all around more unsure smile was Jemima, in a knee length amber cheque dress and a way too large thick burgundy woollen jumper that had belonged her grandfather. Her golden curls, very much like her mother's, reached the bottom of her back and were pulled out of her face by a bright red Alice Band. All in all, they looked like any other regular single parent family, even though they were anything but. Gordon had been seven when this picture had been taken and Jemima had been four, she still found it difficult to believe that it had been nineteen-nearly twenty-years since it had been taken.

"Kate?" Kate quickly dropped the photo frame back in the drawer, hurriedly closing it as she looked to the door and found one of the Osgoods standing there, iPad in one hand while the other was on the door handle. Kate had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't even heard the younger woman knock. 

"Yes, Osgood? Sorry, I was preoccupied, was there something you wanted?" She asked, shaking her head at herself, mentally chastising herself for getting lost in her own thoughts.

"We're heading off. I just came to see if you were doing the same. It's getting pretty late." Petronella gave her a small sympathetic half smile, her feet shuffling awkwardly. Her twin, hidden out of the sight of their employer, face palmed herself. As much as she loved her twin, boy could she be awkward. Kate glanced at her watch again in shock and nodded, it was rather late, before grabbing her coat, bag and phone.

"That was probably the most awkward thing I've seen you do in a while, Nell." Bonnie whispered to her sister as they waited for their boss. The bow tie wearing Osgood turned crimson at her sister's words and hissed through gritted teeth so Kate wouldn't hear her.

"Bonnie! Shut up!" At that moment Kate joined them, shrugging on her coat, with a worn smile.

Meanwhile, at Cavendish Court, Jemima was standing face to face with her older brother-undecided on whether she should scream and slam the door in his face or just do the latter. How the hell does he know where I live?! She asked herself, taking in every in of her militant brother.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" She finally asked, her voice small but by no means weak. It carried heat, shock, surprise and confusion yet it sounded so small to Jemima's ears, almost as if someone else had asked the question.

"I wanted to see you." Gordy told her simply, his eyes searching her face as if he were trying to memorise it. Jemima folded her arms, pulling the door closed behind her so the girls wouldn't hear but she'd still be able to get in without a key. "You're my sister, I have a right to want to see how you are." He told her, knowing the slight set of her jaw, the small puff of a scoff from her faintly parted lips, the defensive stance meant that she didn't believe him and was squaring up for a fight if necessary. When they were younger that's all they ever seemed to do, fight and argue and Gordy would always win when their mother got involved. 

"You lost the right to have anything to do with me the day you turned nearly the whole family against me." Jemima shot back coldly, determined not to let her brother's appearance ruin what little good her day had turned up.

"I didn't turn nearly the whole family against you-"

"Nan wouldn't talk to me anymore, Granny Doris couldn't look me in the eye for eight months, Granddad would either make impersonal small talk with me or leave the goddamn room when I came in for two whole months! Not to mention I would get cold, blank and disinterested looks from our own mother, who I happen to run into today and she had the gall to act as if nothing had ever happened in front of my friends!" Jemima informed him hotly, keeping her voice low so not to alert her nosy neighbours of the domestic occurring in their street, "The only ones who stuck by me through the whole thing were Brigadier and Poppy!" 

"I was a kid! I was stupid, I didn't know any better! I didn't realise what was going on with you was that serious!" Gordy shot back and Jemima turned to the door, quickly catching her dogs when they came out to see what was going on. "Wow, they grew up fast." Gordy muttered taking a step back when the canine pair took up protective stances in front of their mistress.

"Brigadier, Poppy, inside with the girls." Jemima told them, softly but firmly and the pair begrudgingly did as they were told.

"'The girls'?" Gordy asked and Jemima folded her arms, blocking him from the door.

"My goddaughters, they're staying with me until their father gets back from America. Not that it's any of your business, Gordon." She informed him, fixing him with a death glare that would make even the bravest men tremble.

"I take it I'm not welcomed here." Gordy stated, already seeing the answer in his younger sister's eyes.

"You'll be welcomed here the day when you truly mean your apologies. Until then, I never want to see your face around here again. And the same goes for Ms Stewart and any other member of UNIT." She told him coldly yet sincerely, if there was one thing that would never change about Jemima it was her honesty. She meant what she said and said what she meant. 

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Gordy asked her softly, a small frown in place on his otherwise rugged features. He hadn't come to argue with his sister, he had come to see her, to see what she had become after their grandfather had died. To have a nice chat over a cup of tea after he had returned from his tour of Afghanistan.

"I wouldn't be able to. Unit probably wouldn't let me in and I have no doubt that she wouldn't see me even if I had a flashing sign on my forehead that read 'Kick me, I'm with stupid'. Goodnight, Sergeant Lethbridge-Stewart." Jemima told before turning and heading back inside her home, leaving her brother on the front doorstep. Gordy sighed tiredly as the door shut softly behind his sister. Five years he hadn't seen her, he would have thought time apart would have helped them. Perhaps he was wrong.

Jemima slumped against her front door, sliding down to the cold lino floor with a hefty sigh. _Why did all this have to happen the day before Kayla's Radiotherapy? Let alone the night before when Kayla's going to have nightmares about it all._

"Auntie! Daddy wants to talk to you!" Victoria called from the kitchen and Jemima rubbed her eyes tiredly, before Brigadier nudged her cheek encouragingly. She could deal with her thoughts later when the girls were in bed and asleep. 

"Coming sweetheart!" She called, trying to sound cheerful, before gently fussing Brigadier behind the ears and kissing his head gratefully. She pushed herself up from the floor, going into the kitchen and smiled when she found Pippa lightly dosing, Kayla trying to stay awake and Victoria making sure Kayla couldn't fall off her chair with Poppy's help. "What's up Darren?" She asked quietly, picking up Pippa and pressing a soft kiss to Kayla's forehead.

"Who was that at the door?" Darren asked and Jemima sighed silently before answering.

"Just someone I used to know. Now, I think it's time you let the girls get to bed, it's a tiring day tomorrow." 

"Yes ma'am!"

"Never call me that again, Darren Rothschild, if you ever want to have anymore kids." Jemima told him bluntly, causing him to chuckle before Jemima picked up Kayla on her other hip and the girls said goodnight to their father.

"Goodnight my angels. Goodnight scary lady who is looking after them."

"Oh next time I see you, you are so getting a clip round the ear." Jemima chuckled softly before hanging up and ushering Victoria upstairs, the dogs following when their mistress gave them the go ahead.

Jemima helped get the girls ready for bed then, as part of their night before tradition, Jemima took them into her room and allowed them to climb into bed with her for a story. "Alright, what am I reading tonight my darlings?" She asked from her book shelf, "Something by Beatrix Potter? What about something from Roald Dahl? Or maybe..." Jemima looked over at the trio when no voices begged for certain stories as usual. All three girls were fast asleep, a gap between Kayla and Victoria for Jemima to sleep.

Their godmother watched them for a few moments, their angelic features showing no signs of stress or the wear of the day. It was moments like those that made Jemima understand why she agreed to be their godmother, not that she didn't love them with all her heart and soul for just existing.  

"Oh my darling angels..." She whispered softly before gently scooping up Pippa, and laying her softly in the cott at the end of her bed, her crisp snow white baby blanket folded neatly and snugly round the toddler who kicked it loose a moment later in her sleep. Jemima quickly and silently changed into her own pyjamas and stealthily slid into the gap in between Victoria and Kayla, getting the pair snuggling closer to her at once.

"Oi, you two," Jemima whispered to her dogs as they watched her by the door. She tweaked her head towards the bed and Poppy trotted in silently, pounced on the bed and curled up near Victoria's side. Brigadier came in, pushed the door closed with his head before doing the same as his mate on Kayla's side. It was probably the greatest comfort they could give their mistress and her young brood at that moment as the slipped from reality into the landscapes of their dreams...


	6. Chapter 6

When someone thinks of their alarm first thing in the morning, it usually would be a certain radio station or a loud annoying beeping sound. Sometimes the sound of their phone vibrating and making noises would be enough to wake someone up. Jemima's alarm clock was one of the annoying beeping kind, but that wasn't what woke her the next morning. Another Girl, Another Planet by blink-182 blared into her bedroom, shattering the early morning peace and waking all occupants of the room.

"Christ on a bike!" Jemima breathed, having lept into consciousness by the song, while Kayla and Victoria looked round groggily.

"Auntie...I wanna sleep." Victoria grumbled as Pippa began to wail at the interruption to her sleeping cycle.

"I know, I know, darlings. Lay back down and try to go back to sleep while I sort out this mess, ok?" Jemima whispered, slipping out of bed, much to the protest of Kayla, who had been cuddling her like a teddy bear until she had woken up. Jemima quickly scooped up Pippa, who quietened once in Jemima's grasp, and picked up her phone. "You better have a good reason for calling at this hour in the morning." She answered it, her tone stern and edgy.

"Does the fact that we have unit on our front door step sound like a good enough reason?!" Luke asked her irritably and Jemima set her jaw.

"I don't know why you called me, it's nothing to do with me. Until a few minutes ago I was asleep with my entire household in my room!" The blonde whispered harshly as she checked the time and left, Brigadier not far behind her. Poppy stayed to watch over the offspring in the bed. 

"It's got everything to do with you since they are looking for you!" Luke shot back and Jemima warned him.

"Well tell them to hop it and you better not tell them where I live, after last night I don't want unit on my doorstep. Especially since I've only just got up and have a crying two year old on my hip." Luke smiled slightly at her phrasing and asked in mild jest.

"I'm guessing you look like Medusa too, huh?" Jemima relaxed a little, a tiny half smile curling the corner of her mouth when Pippa grabbed onto an errant curl of blonde hair and began sucking her thumb. 

"Oh you know me so well." She replied before putting Luke on loud speaker, setting her phone down and beginning to make Pippa's breakfast. "How's your mum and Sky? How are they taking having the military on their doorstep?" She asked, setting Pippa in her high chair as she got her food ready.

"They're alright, Mum's currently talking to our invaders and Sky wants to talk to you. She's not happy." Luke replied, watching Sarah Jane argue with the officer in charge of the invasion while Sky gave him an impatient look, foot tapping and arms folded.

"Neither am I, I was having a lovely dream before you woke me and the rest of the house up." Jemima chuckled picking up her phone and putting back to her ear, taking it off loud speaker as she did so.

"Really? I won't ask what about, I may regret it otherwise." Luke commented and Jemima blushed at the implications of such a comment.

"Not like that! Oh you've hung around Clyde too much, speaking of Clyde, is Clani there with you?" She asked, trying to divert the topic of conversation.

"Yep and guess who's just turned up." Luke told her as Kate and a bow tied Osgood arrived on the scene.

"If you say my mother I will hang up the phone." The last thing Jemima needed that day was to have another set of interaction with any of her family. 

"Please don't, otherwise that means I get dragged into questioning." Luke told her and Jemima sighed, before smiling encouragingly to Pippa as she helped the toddler get a grip on her spoon. 

"Fine, but only to spare you from interrogation. Trust me, it isn't fun to be on the receiving end of Lethbridge-Stewart interrogation."

"Lyric, I happen to be one of your best friends and you are a Lethbridge-Stewart, I get interrogated most of the time by you when you have no clue what's going on." Luke laughed slightly and Jemima made a mock offended noise.

"How dare you sir! You're lucky I love you so much otherwise you'd be strung up by your ankles from the top of the Shard." She informed him, glancing at the doorway where Poppy had trudged in groggily. "Oh hold on, Pops doesn't look to bright. We're all gonna suffer today." Jemima joked softly before she was splattered with porridge when Pippa dropped her spoon. "And now I've got porridge on my favourite PJs. Smashing." She sighed, picking up the spoon and looking at a giggling Pippa with a rueful smile. When no reply came Jemima asked. "Luke? You still there?" Then she heard a series of thuds and something being knocked over and panic began to fill her. "Luke?! Luke answer me! Are you there?!" 

"No but his annoyed little sister is! I can't even go to my room to go back to sleep! I can't even sleep on the sofa!" Sky groused at her and Jemima rolled her eyes affectionately, helping Pippa eat the porridge and small chunks of fresh fruit.

"Your brother didn't just interrupt my sleep, Sky, but the sleep of my three goddaughters, one of whom started crying and has chucked a bit of her porridge at me as well as my dogs. One of which isn't looking too bright. I think I win." Jemima informed her before gasping in delight and cheering quietly in a way most mothers did when their child accomplished something new. "That's my clever girl, eating her porridge all by herself without getting any down herself." She cooed to her goddaughter, causing her friend on the phone to burst into laughter, "Oh you shut up Sky Smith. You'd be like this too if you were here." 

"Fair enough but you sound so daft when you say things like that. Don't get me wrong it's adorable but funny all the same."

"Oh put your brother back on, he didn't laugh at me when I did baby talk." Jemima huffed at her in a joking fashion before Kayla and Victoria joined them, shuffling in sleepily. "Oh, better go. Got the breakfast rush and we're on a mission today. Give my love to Clani and Sarah Jane, good luck with unit!" Jemima hung up quickly after that and began to do breakfast for the other two girls, keeping an eye on Poppy who was curled up in her dog basket, Brigadier right beside her. It was odd, the pair hardly ever used the dog bed, choosing to sleep in the same room as their owner instead.

At Bannerman Road, the alien defenders were stood in the drive way of their HQ, face to face with unit. Sarah Jane had spent the last twenty minutes arguing with Captain Josh Carter, who was a few years older than Luke and his friends, until Kate and one of the Osgoods had arrived.

"I'm sorry about this, Sarah Jane, but we have a situation-"

"Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, I respect that you have a situation of some kind but does it really warrant breaking down my front door at twenty to seven in the morning and having guns pointed at my children and their friends?" Sarah Jane cut across the younger woman who gave her an apologetic look, her hands in the pockets of her dark uniform jacket.

"Sorry, it doesn't, all these muzzles and they still don't know how to know properly. You'd think they'd learn by now," Kate told the older woman with a worn grimace before continuing. "I authorised a small squad to accompany Captain Carter here to ask if you had any idea where my daughter is. She'll hate me for saying this but she needs to be protected if Desmondaio has plans for her." The Bannerman Road gang looked at one another before Luke said.

"Lyric can look after herself." 

"I understand that, but we have to be certain that Desmondaio can't get his hands on her." Kate told the young man before Rani stated seriously.

"We can't tell you where she is."

"Why not?" Captain Carter asked, that's all he had gotten out of Sarah Jane.

"That house is her safe haven away from everything, if unit or any military go marching up to her front door she'll go ballistic." Sky informed them brightly and Clyde nodded, adding.

"She's a blonde bombshell." Luke face-palmed himself, Sky winced and Rani groaned in embarrassment at the pun.

"Oh that was terrible." Rani told her boyfriend ashamedly, shaking her head at him.

"Worst one yet." Luke informed him and Clyde gave them a small frown.

"Who said I was joking? I've never seen her mad but apparently she turns into your worst nightmare." Clyde told them, looking distinctly uncomfortable with the thought as he shifted slightly on his feet.

"Who told you that?" Sarah Jane asked her young friend who looked a little downcast before saying.

"The Brigadier, it was when Lyric was arguing on the phone with her then-boyfriend about cinema plans or something." 

"I remember that, you and Luke looked petrified after he had said that and Lyric came back looking sad." Sky giggled at Clyde and her brother who shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the unit officers. 

"Whether she'll go ballistic or not, we need to find her to keep her safe. Even if that means putting in undercover surveillance to keep an eye on her." Kate told the group uneasily. The sooner they could find out where Jemima was the sooner they could put the necessary measures in place to keep her and anyone else safe. The group looked at each other, Luke opening his mouth to say something when his phone vibrated and beeped.

"Sorry," He muttered and checked it before cringing. "Damn, I forgot that was today."

"What?" Sky asked her brother, her brother never forgot anything. Never. 

"Lyric's in hospital today." He told the group and Kate straightened at that, concern etching it's way slowly through her professional facade. "Don't worry, it's not for her health."

"But why is she in hospital then?" Captain Carter asked and Osgood quickly cut in.

"It's for that little girl, isn't it? The one with no hair." Sky looked visibly upset by this, how could she forget? Rani was saddened and Clyde wrapped a comforting arm round her shoulders. Sarah Jane nodded sadly, giving her daughter a one arm hug in comfort.

"Kayla, Lyric's middle goddaughter. She was diagnosed with Leukaemia last April, broke her father's heart, completely shattered Lyric's. She's going in for her bimonthly treatment today." Luke informed the three unit personnel and Kate softened a great deal. She hadn't realised. She hadn't any clue that Jemima even had godchildren, let alone one with cancer. 

"You didn't know?" Sky asked Kate who looked at the teen and shook her head. "But you're Lyric's mum, I thought mums knew things like that?" Sky looked to her mother who grimaced slightly, definitely uneasy by the turn the conversation had taken.

"Until yesterday we hadn't spoken in five years, Miss Smith, and before that things weren't exactly smooth sailing." Kate informed the young girl before moving her fringe out of her eyes. "I understand today will no doubt be a difficult day for her, I just want to make it a little easier for her by making sure she doesn't have to worry about the safety of her girls and herself. Please, help me do that." The Bannerman Road gang looked at one another before looking to Sarah Jane who then nodded solemnly in consent.

A few hours later, Jemima was sat in the waiting room of the hospital, Pippa in her lap and Victoria reading to her littlest sister by her side. She had gotten a message to Luke to ask him to feed Brigadier and Poppy and walk them while she was gone as she couldn't bring them with her. She would have if she could have. They would have been a great comfort to the girls, not to mention herself, and it would have cheered Kayla up to see them just in case-

"Auntie, why are you crying?" Victoria asked her godmother, concerned as to the sudden appearance of tears in her godmother's eyes. Jemima blinked and shook herself from her morose thoughts before smiling down at the little girl.

"I'm not, sweetheart, just my eyes watering because I forgot to blink." That is the worst excuse you have ever come up with Jemima Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart you should be ashamed of yourself. Jemima told herself as Victoria nodded and went back to reading to Pippa who was contentedly playing with her godmother's coat. Jemima checked the hall for the twenty-third time and saw Kayla's CNS nurse, Carol, heading towards them. Jemima touched Victoria's shoulder and she stopped reading. 

"Carol!" Victoria beamed, jumping to her feet as Jemima rose with Pippa on her hip. Carol gave the girls a warm smile and greeted them kindly before looking to Jemima.

"How was she?" The blonde asked of the brunette who gave her a soft smile and chuckled.

"Not a spot of trouble, she's recovering now so she'll be ready to go home in a bit. You know what to do by now, right?" Jemima nodded gratefully, "How have you been coping?"

"As well as a girl can with a dead love life, no job and a landlord who won't get off my back." Jemima told her and Carol gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Trust me, as soon as you get a job things will start looking brighter. Kayla told me about your next interview. IT technician in the office blocks near the tube?" She asked and Jemima nodded with a sad smile.

"Yeah, it's better than nothing and it still gives me plenty of time to be with the girls when they need me." She replied before Victoria asked the nurse.

"Can we see Kayla now, Carol? Please? Pretty please?" She clasped her hands together and pouted adorably up at the nurse. Pippa looked at her sister and copied the hand gesture, saying.

"Pwetty pwease?" Carol beamed at the toddler and nodded to Victoria saying.

"Oh Pippa's speech really is coming along. And she looks adorable by the way."

"My dress sense is great when it comes to my girls but not with myself." Jemima joked softly, trying to shake the unease that hospitals always gave her. One would think with amount of times she had been in hospital she would feel right at home but she never did. Carol chuckled softly at the young woman as they walked the corridors to Kayla's recovery room, where upon their arrival Victoria carefully took off her shoes and climbed onto the bed beside her sister. Kayla, half asleep from her treatment, snuggled close to her sister and rested her head on Victoria's chest.

"So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty. Haniel Long." Jemima murmured and Carol gently patted her arm in sympathy before Pippa began to wriggle and squirm, reaching for her sisters. Jemima placed the toddler on her feet and Pippa unsteadily tottered of the to bed, nearly falling over twice as she did so. She couldn't get on the bed without assistance though. Jemima scooped her up and placed her in between her sisters so she wouldn't fall and so she could hug her sisters.

"Also by Jemima Lethbridge-Stewart, one of your favourite quotes right?" Jemima nodded sadly before muttering.

"Something I share with my grandfather and mother." Carol nodded before gesturing to the bed and Jemima took the small space near the foot of the bed. "Hello you, how you feeling?" Jemima asked the little girl kindly and Kayla gave her a sleepy smile.

"Tired, Auntie, and my chest hurts a bit." Kayla whispered hoarsely and Jemima nodded sympathetically. 

"It'll ease soon, then you've got your scans with Carol pulling funny faces at the window." Jemima whispered as if it were some great conspiracy between the group. Kayla gave a worn and pained grin while Victoria giggled and Pippa snuggled closer to Kayla. Carol shook her head at the group, rolling her eyes affectionately with a fond smile, before a commotion in the corridor caught her attention. Jemima creased her brow and rose but Carol put a comforting hand on her arm and went to see what was going on.

"What on earth...?" The nurse inquired to herself as she went outside the room, looking towards the commotion. 

"Carol!" Sky called looking out of breath and panicked, she was being stopped by another nurse and a doctor, both trying to calm her down.

"Sky, what are you doing here?"  Carol asked, moving briskly towards the young woman, "It's alright, she's a friend of Kayla Rothschild and her family." Carol informed the doctor and nurse who nodded and left Carol to deal with th young woman.

"Is Lyric here? Some...Something's happened-She needs to know!" Sky told her, trying to breathe. 

"Yes she's with Kayla, Victoria and Pippa. Kayla's just had her treatment-What's happened, Sky?" Carol asked her and the young woman nodded, before Jemima stuck her head into the corridor and asked.

"Sky? What are you doing here?" Carol shrugged looking clueless as Sky walked briskly towards Jemima and threw her arms round her. "Sky, you're starting to freak me out, what's wrong?" Jemima asked her younger friend, her tone soft and consoling despite her words.

"Something's happened, that thing's got Luke and my mum! He's got them and he's going to hurt them unless you stop him!" Sky sobbed forcefully and Jemima asked, worried and confused.

"What's got Luke and your mum, sweetheart?" 

"Desmondaio!" The world seeming stopped, froze in that instant of time. Jemima couldn't breathe, she could feel every tiny movement in her body-every molecule jutting to a halt. Oh this was bad. Very. Very. Bad...


	7. Chapter 7

"Lyric? Lyric you're not breathing! Lyric breathe!" Sky told her friend, shaking her gently and Carol smacked Jemima on the back, making her having a rather violent coughing fit.

"Thanks...Carol!" She hacked out before breathing deeply to create a calm facade. She turned back to Sky and gently rubbing her upper arms soothingly. "Sky," she began, trying to remain calm, "Did he say where he was taking them? And has he taken anyone else?" She asked and Sky sniffed noisily as she tried to calm down.

"He said he was taking them to the place where it all began. He also took one of the soldiers, Captain Carter I think his name is."

"Sounds rather cliche but then again it probably isn't for that sod." Jemima muttered to herself before Carol asked.

"What's going on?" Jemima squeezed Sky's arms gently, offering her a tissue to dry her eyes, before turning to Carol.

"Someone I used to know has kidnapped three of my friends. I need to sort this out, can you stay with the girls?" Carol looked a little frazzled before asking.

"I-I...Jemima, I have other patients and what about Kayla's scans? Can't the police handle your friends kidnapping and you stay with the girls?" Jemima chewed on her lip, looking torn and agitated. Then she had an idea. 

"Give me two minutes." She told them pair before taking out her phone and hitting the first speed dial number. 

Meanwhile Kate blinked blearily in the too bright light and moved to touch her throbbing head. The attack had come out of nowhere. Their weapons had no effect on Desmondaio and his shadow like minions.

"Ma'am...? Kate...? Kate are you alright?" She barely registered the voice asking after her as she pressed her palm to her pale forehead and tried to sit up. "Easy, Kate, you took a bit of a battering." Kate moved her head towards the voice and saw one of the Osgoods kneeling over her. 

"Os?" She asked, not entirely aware of their surroundings. 

"Yeah, it's me. Careful, you've got a minor head injury." Petronella informed her boss, edging round to wrap an arm round her back to help her sit up. She was shaking, what she had just witnessed was unlike anything she had ever seen. Men and Women slaughtered by shadows, Josh Carter and two of the Smiths being snatched from the ground and swarmed in darkness only to vanish with Desmondaio a moment later. Sky screaming and crying for her mother and brother as more unit soldiers were killed or injured. It was a sight she never wished to see again.

"Nell? You and Kate alright?" Bonnie asked as she hurried over. Petronella nodded to her twin before Kate asked.

"Where's Sky Smith? And Rani and Clyde?" 

"Rani and Clyde are with the medics, Sky said something about getting help and ran off after she had been patched up and given the all clear." Bonnie informed her boss, and her sister's crush, before helping her twin get the older blonde to the medic station.

"We have to find Sarah Jane, Luke and Josh. What did Desmondaio say before he vanished?" Kate asked the two scientists and she got her balance and began walking without assistance, though Petronella was still aware that her boss wasn't completely stable. The Osgoods shared uneasy look before Lieutenant Sam Bishop came jogging over.

"Ma'am, all extensively injured personnel are being taken to the nearest available hospitals, all walking wounded are either being treated here or at the tower." He informed his superior, who nodded despite it making her head throb all the more.

"Very good, Sam, any traces of Desmondaio or his minions on our scanners?" Sam shook his head before saying.

"No, Ma'am, but we have managed to locate Sky Smith. She's at St Thomas's Hospital." Kate nodded again before noticing the small uncomfortable look on her assistants' faces.

"Osgoods?" She asked and Bonnie admitted.

"St Thomas's Hospital is where Kayla Rothschild has her Radiotherapy twice a month." Kate stopped walking and stared at the question mark scarf wearing Osgood.

"Sky went to tell your daughter what happened." The other Osgood admitted and Kate looked between them both. 

"If Desmondaio is watching Sky then she's lead him straight to what he wants. And even if he isn't, she's just given us her location which I'm sure won't be appreciated." Kate grumbled as she began walking briskly, completely ignoring the pounding in her head. The only thing she was concerned with now was getting Josh, Luke and Sarah Jane back and keeping Jemima away from Desmondaio.

Back at St Thomas's, Jemima was fastening her coat tie loosely as she watched Sky keeping Victoria and Pippa company while Kayla was going through her scans. Her phone call had been to Darren and he was one the first available flight back to the UK to be with his daughters. Admittedly she had used a fair amount of emotional blackmail to get him to come back early, but it was mostly down to it being high time he started being there for his daughters. He couldn't leave the cancer support up to Jemima anymore.

"Oh just go already. Darren is on his way, Sky will be with Victoria and Pippa and I'll be checking on them regularly. Just go and help your friends from that psycho." Carol told Jemima who was blatantly startled by Carol's firm encouragement. Carol was a believer in passive aggressiveness, much like Jemima but Carol loathed the thought of violence even when used in self defence. Jemima did not. 

"Yeah, go kick the bad guy's butt and save Uncle Luke!" Victoria told her godmother who blushed darkly and quickly cleared her throat in embarrassment. 

"Since when did you start approving of my mixed martial arts stories?" She asked, hugging Pippa and kissing her head, then doing the same with Victoria herself.

"When you admitted to having a massive crush on Luke." Victoria stated sweetly and Jemima hugged Sky, whispering.

"Look after them and stay safe." Sky nodded against her shoulder and whispered.

"Bring them home in one piece. You better come back too." Jemima smiled slightly and planted a sisterly kiss to her temple.

"Don't worry about me, I'm tougher than I look." Then she pulled away and began to leave. "Be good you two, that goes for you too Carol." Jemima teased the nurse gently, getting playfully swatted on the arm in return. Jemima hurried out of the hospital and into the streets of London. "Back where it all began huh? How more cliche can you get?" Jemima muttered before sticking out her hand yelling. "Taxi!" A black London cab pulled up in front of her and she climbed in. "Could you get me to Waterloo Station please? As fast as you can." She asked the driver who floored it as soon as she was in her seat.

Meanwhile in the old abandoned White Hart Road Depot warehouse in Plumstead, Sarah Jane, Luke, Josh and Gordy were coming to at different rates. Sarah Jane came to first, stiffly sitting up and looking round in a dazed fashion until she saw her son laying in a crumpled heap not far from her. 

"Luke!" She gasped and scrambled to his side as fast as she could. "Luke? Luke, can you hear me? Wake up! Luke?!" She called to him, shaking him gently til he stirred. 

"Mum...?" He asked and she nodded before carefully helping him to sit up. "Where are we?" He asked her and Sarah Jane shrugged. 

"No idea," Then they heard a groan from one of the other two and Sarah Jane suggested, "Lets help these two then set about finding a way out?" Luke nodded and got up slowly, going over to Gordy and shaking him till he came round. He didn't know who this new man was, just that he was there with them for a reason. Also something he didn't know. 

"Christ...That hurt..." Gordy groaned as he came to, his hands immediately curling round his pounding skull. 

"You alright, mate?" Luke asked him and Gordy nodded.

"Massive headache but not broken bones, you?" The older young man asked as Luke helped him sit up.

"I'm fine, who are you by the way?" Luke asked him and Gordy put out his hand.

"Sergeant Gordon James Lethbridge-Stewart, friends call me Gordy, and you are?" Luke grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.

"Luke Smith, come on, up you get." Luke helped Gordy to stand while Sarah Jane helped Josh up.

"Right, anyone know where we are?" Josh asked and they shook their heads, they were in the middle of a derelict dimly lit room with soil on the floor. 

"Looks like an old storage room to me." Gordy stated, going over to a wall and lightly tapping it with his army boot clad foot.

"A really old storage room more like. Who are you?" Josh asked him and Gordy looked back over at the unit man.

"Sergeant Gordon James Lethbridge-Stewart. Friends call me Gordy. What about you, Captain?" Josh saluted him briefly and said.

"Captain Joshua Carter, mates call me Josh." 

"You're Kate's son? Little Gordy?" Sarah Jane asked Gordy who quickly looked at her and squinted slightly, recognition clear in his features.

"Sarah Jane Smith?" He asked with a small smile as Sarah Jane nodded and shook hands warmly with him.

"I'm not going to ask how you know each other." Josh stated before going over to the door and kicking it to test it's strength.

"Captain Carter, I doubt that'll-" Sarah Jane was cut off by the wood creaking then collapsing in on itself only to reveal a thick rusted iron gate guarding a flight of steps that lead upwards.

"Well damn." Gordy stated simply as Josh grabbed two of the bars and tried to bend them. With his modifications thanks to the Nestene Consciousness he was able to bend a few inches of metal but he just couldn't bend this much.

"Definitely damn." Josh agreed bluntly before Luke went to the lock and pulled out a bobbie pin. "You're not seriously going to try the old bobbie pin trick are you?" Josh asked him and Luke gave him a flat look.

"Do you have any better ideas, Captain?" He asked bluntly and Josh folded his arms, no he didn't. 

"Why do you have a bobbie pin in your pocket?" Gordy asked him curiously.

"It's not one of mine if that's what you're thinking." Sarah Jane told the two soldiers before Luke admitted quietly.

"It's one of Lyric's." Sarah Jane raised her eyebrows with a small smile while Josh patted Luke on the back.

"Get in there big fella." He told the leaner young man while Gordy asked.

"I take it Lyric is a girl you know?" Luke nodded simply before the bobbie pin snapped in the lock.

"Well bang goes that idea." Luke admitted before pausing, realising something, "I've hung around Lyric way too much if I'm saying things like that."

"You know what they say, imitation is the best form of flattery." Sarah Jane told her son fondly before Gordy lept away from the wall as a shadow seeped through the cracks. Desmondaio had arrived.

"What do you want, Desmondaio?" Sarah Jane asked the creature as he solidified and grinned with a twisted kind of malicious sweetness in her features. His eyes however were cold, almost as frosty as their icy hue.

"Oh nothing from you Miss Smith, or any of the young men. It's what your presence will bring here that I crave." With a gesture of his snow white papery scaly hands a medium sized disc appeared on the wall beside him showing Jemima walking down a street not far from the depot.

"Lyric!" Sarah Jane gasped and Gordy cracked his knuckles.

"What the hell do you want with my baby sister?" He growled at the creature and Luke stepped forward snapping.

"Lyric isn't going to give you what you want, she'd never betray Earth like that!" 

"She would, Luke Smith," Desmondaio taunted him, "Oh how she would move heaven and Earth for her loved ones. She would risk everything to protect her nearest and dearest, including her own life essence." 

"Her what?" Josh asked, folding his arms with a heated glare at the alien.

"Her life essence, humans refer to it as their soul. However, this young lady is no ordinary human. She has abilities enhanced by her father's genes, he was human with control over energy. Something his daughter has inherited." Desmondaio explained and Sarah Jane.

"What does Lyric's life essence have to do with you?"

"Her father is dying and wishes for his daughter to not be the only survivor of their kind-"

"He sent you here to kill her? Her own father sent you here to kill her so he wouldn't die alone?!" Gordy snapped, his anger and outrage growing at the very suggestion of the thought.

"Once she is dead, her life essence and her kind will die with her. However, if I take her life essence she will become an ordinary human being. She will no longer be connected to her father's kind." Desmondaio explained, sweetly and soothingly. They didn't believe him. Not for one second. 

"You lay a finger on my sister and I swear on my grandfather's grave you won't live to regret it." Gordy growled at their captor who cackled at the threat, raising a hand.

"Get down!" Sarah Jane cried and the four human hit the dirt, Gordy just missing a bolt of black lightning being fired from Desmondaio's hand.

"Foolish boy! You should really think before you make your pathetic threats. Now, I must leave you. Our honoured guest has nearly arrived." The disc on the wall remained when Desmondaio faded from the room and Gordy kicked some of the dirt up from under his feet with a growl of anger once he was on his feet again.

"Calm down, Gordy, getting angry won't help the situation." Sarah Jane told him from the floor as Luke helped her up. 

"He's going to kill my little sister and I'm stuck down here! I think I have a right to be angry, Miss Smith!" Gordy protested and Luke shot back.

"You can't protect her from this, none of us can! We have to get a message to your mum to get Lyric some help." Gordy seemed to calm at this before reaching into his pocket and checking his phone.

"No cell service, got a radio Captain?" He asked Josh who smirked and reached for where his radio usually was.

"Does a fly have wings...That git's nicked my radio!" He patted his pockets and other places where he could have put his radio only to find it missing. 

"We we can't get a message to Mum then." Gordy concluded before they heard a soft voice calling.

"Sarah Jane? Luke? Captain Carter? Are you here? Sarah Jane can you hear me? Luke where are you?" 

"Lyric!" Luke yelled through the gate.

"Luke!? Where are you?!" Jemima called, she sounded closer, clearer.

"Down here! Follow our voices!" Sarah Jane called.

"Sarah Jane! Hold on!" Jemima shouted, and a long shadow appeared at the top of the stairs. 

"Lyric, you shouldn't have come here." Luke told Jemima when she had practically bounded down the steps.

"Luke! Don't be daft, I couldn't let Desmondaio get away with this! Not after having Sky practically sobbing on me in the middle of a hospital." She told him when she bumped into the gate.

"Desmondaio wants you, Lyric-"

"I know, I know, Sarah Jane, just let me get you out of here." Jemima told the older woman, bending down to look at the lock. "Ok, what idiot tried to bobbie pin trick?" She asked and Luke looked a little sheepish. "I'm gonna have to teach you how to do it properly." She told him with a small smile before Gordy asked.

"Can we chat about this once you open the door please?" 

"Gordy? He took you too? Bloody hell he must be desperate to see me." Jemima muttered as she pressed her palm against the lock and it clicked and clunked until it opened. The door though, it was rusted shut. 

"Damn it." Gordy muttered but Jemima shook her head.

"Hold on," she told them and took out the bolts on the hinges of the door before giving it a few firm tugs. At the last tug it swung open and Jemima beckoned them out. "Come on, follow me. It's a Labyrinth up there so stick close." Jemima told them, half way through a turn towards the top of the stairs.

"That won't be necessary, my dear." Desmondaio chuckled from the head of the steps.

"Oh bugger." Jemima cursed and Josh agreed.

"Couldn't have put it better myself." Then Desmondaio opened his arms with a maniacal cackle like nails on a chalk board, turning into a dark cloud of smoke and enveloping them all...


	8. Chapter 8

"Lyric!"

"Jemima!" 

"Luke!"

"Mum!" 

"Gordy!"

"Ow that was my foot!" Various voices cried from inside the cloud of smoke as they were taken from the stairs to the cold concrete ground floor of the derelict building. Each body landed with a thud, mostly on their backs and backsides but Jemima landed like a cat on her feet.

"Ok, we land on our backs and butts and you land on your feet. Not fair." Josh told her and Jemima smirked slightly at the soldier.

"Oh man up soldier boy." She told him and helped him up before helping her crush and his mother up. "You two alright?" She asked helping to steady the older woman.

"Fine thank you." Sarah Jane told the young blonde, "Are you?" Jemima nodded before Desmondaio formed a few meters away. The group turned towards him and Jemima felt Luke's hand slip into hers, she squeezed it gently in comfort, before releasing it and taking a few steps forward.

"Well? I'm here, like you wanted. What do you want-Urgh!" Jemima doubled over when Desmondaio shot some of his energy straight at her stomach.

"Jemima." Gordy breathed and knelt beside his sister, helping her to her knees with a protective arm round her.

"Oh you son of a banshee." Jemima breathed through gritted teeth.

"It appears your cloaking device has stopped working, your protective shield no longer functions." Desmondaio observed and Jemima glowered at him as her brother helped her up.

"No, I'm just not wearing it anymore. It's currently protecting some very important people to me and I'll not let you harm them." She growled, her voice becoming harsh and her eyes hard. Desmondaio chuckled slightly and stated.

"Your goddaughters. And their father of course, my how your head is full of wonderfully awful memories. Especially concerning them, watching their mother die bringing the youngest into the world, seeing their father spiral into becoming an obsessive workaholic. Trying to give them a better childhood than what you had, always in your brother's shadow-"

"Stop it, stop it right now, I'm not interested in your mind games, Desmondaio, I'm interested in you leaving me and this planet alone!" Jemima snapped, wrenching herself free from her brother's grasp to stand on her own two feet without hindrance. Gordy stared at his sister, he had no idea that was how she saw it when they were growing up.

"And of course, all your failed relationships! All those friends you lost, all those insecurities about never being good enough-"

"ENOUGH!" The cry echoed round the building, ripped straight from a raw tender place in Jemima's darkest place. "I don't have to listen to this, I don't have to play your mind games, I can turn round and take my friends home. I don't have to let you in my head again, not after the first time and everything you did to me. Not again." Jemima told the creature, completely oblivious to Luke and Sarah Jane staring at her at a complete loss of something to say or do, oblivious to Gordy watching her like he was trying to solve some complex puzzle. Josh, however, had managed to locate his tracker pack, some thing that was standard issue for UNIT personnel in case they were lost in the field, and switch it on. Osgood would be able to find them now, he hoped. 

"My, have I, what's that human phrase? Struck a feeling?" Desmondaio asked mockingly and Jemima glared harder at him.

"It's struck a nerve. The phrase is struck a nerve." Josh corrected the alien and Desmondaio rolled his eyes before saying to Jemima.

"Is your past lover always so pedantic?" Jemima continued to glare at the alien silently as Gordy glared at Josh, Luke glare at the unit man before turning his gaze back to Jemima and Desmondaio. "I take that as a yes."

"For the love of Hans Christian Andersen, just get off this planet before I kick you off, Desmondaio, and you know I don't mean that lightly!" Jemima growled, clenching her fists tightly and setting her jaw firmly.

"I was hoping you'd say something like that." Desmondaio smirked before his hands shot out and Jemima's flew out, one behind her and the other in front of her. A barrier was created behind her, protecting her friends while the other hot her own lilac energy straight at her enemy's chest. 

"Come on Osgood...Hurry up." Josh muttered under his breath as Jemima took a hit of energy while her bolt was devoured by Desmondaio's second. This didn't look likely to end well.

Meanwhile the Osgoods had picked up on Josh's SOS tracker pack and a squad along with both Osgoods, Kate, Sam, Clyde and Rani were on their way to the location. 

"What's the betting Lyric's already there and kicking butt?" Clyde asked his girlfriend who gave a small hollow chuckle and uneasy smile.

"If Desmondaio threatens the others than really likely. She'll be careful though, she doesn't want to destroy the building they're in."

"Why's that?" Sam asked her and Petronella Osgood explained.

"The building that we're getting the signal from is an old derelict depot that used to house an electricity generating station and an incinerator, power generation ceased in nineteen-twenty-three and incineration in nineteen-sixty-five." Bonnie face palmed herself before saying.

"It also has some sort of attachment to Miss Lethbridge-Stewart. If she is fond of the building, why destroy it and not preserve it?" Sam nodded in the logical sense of the explanation before asking.

"But what connection would a young woman like her have with a derelict depot building?" Rani and Clyde shrugged, as did Kate, before their driver hit a hard left, sending Sam squishing into Rani.

"Sorry Miss Chandra." Sam quickly apologised but Rani shook her head with a reassuring smile.

"Don't sweat it, can't help g-forces." She told him and Clyde tried calling Luke only for it to go straight to voice mail.

"Luke's still not picking up." He muttered before Bonnie stated.

"That might have something to do with the energy spikes coming from the depot."

"Lyric's mad!" Rani and Clyde chorused looking worried and nervous. They had very good reason to be both. While they were drawing closer to the site, Jemima was having a hard time fighting off Desmondaio. 

"Block, right, knee up, block again-"

"Gordon shut up you aren't helping!" Jemima snapped at her brother before being grabbed and thrown over Desmondaio into a wall. "Christ on a bike..." She groaned as she collided with the floor. "Gravity you are a banshee." She grumbled before pushing herself up and kicking at Desmondaio's legs only to go straight through him. "Oh now that's not fair at all!" She cried in outrage only for her ankle to be grabbed and her yanked closer to Desmondaio.

"All's fair in love and war, isn't that the correct saying?" He taunted her and she glared at him before saying.

"Alright then, have it your way." She kicked up with her other leg, hitting her enemy straight in the chin, causing him to let go of her ankle in surprise. Jemima rolled backwards, into a crouched position before glancing over at her friends. "Run then!" She snapped at them before rolling to the side to avoid Desmondaio's attack.

"We aren't leaving you!" Sarah Jane told her firmly before wincing when Desmondaio got Jemima in the chest with a strike of energy. This wasn't going well.

"Just give up, young one, you know you won't win. You will fail in this sacred task as you have failed in so many others. You will suffer all the more in the humiliation of this defeat than you have suffered in your entire being!" Desmondaio barked at the young blonde who was breathing heavily, clutching her chest as pain racked through her, her teeth gritted in determination. 

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The massive characters are seared with scars. Khalil Gibran." She told him before her skin took on a lavender glow, her eyes filling with a blinding white light. No iris or pupil was visible in the light but Jemima could still see as she hovered inches above the ground. 

"My, my, you have learned to summon your powers fully." Desmondaio chuckled in conclusion before throwing both hands towards Jemima, a continuous stream of black lightning firing from his palms.

"Unfortunately for you." Jemima muttered before doing the same, lilac lightning bursting like the banks of a stream from her palm. It connected with the black lightning, easily consuming it and shooting straight for Desmondaio who was sent flying towards and through two smaller walls with no roofing above them.

At that moment, Unit arrived and the squad took up firing positions on Jemima and Desmondaio when he emerged from the rumble looking severely ticked off and humiliated. Kate looked between the two, heading towards the small group of spectating captives with the medics, Osgoods, Rani and Clyde as Sam watched over the soldiers, ready to give the order to fire on Kate's command. 

"Are you all alright? No one hurt?" Kate asked the group and they nodded before Rani cried.

"Lyric!" Their heads snapped towards the younger blonde. The glow was fading and the blinding light in her eyes vanished like a light bulb being switched off. She was paler, no colour whatsoever in her cheeks, and looked like she was going to be severely sick. She was shaking, looking frail, like a treasured porcelain doll, before she dropped back to her feet then proceeded to collapse altogether.

"Oh my god..." Kate breathed as Desmondaio smirked, watching Jemima struggle to roll onto her side, let alone get up. Luke took off round the side, climbing over debris despite his mother and Kate telling him to comeback, and to her side.

"Lyric? Lyric can you hear me?" He asked when he gently eased her onto her side. Up close she looked even more worse for wear. He could see her veins her skin was so translucent and she had broken into a cold sweat. Jemima nodded as best she could. She'd never done that much of a power surge before and it had drained her severely. "Hold on, mate, it'll be alright just hold on." Luke told her, taking her by the hand and keeping her on her side. 

"N...N..." Jemima couldn't form a single coherent word let alone sentence as she saw Desmondaio advancing. Luke glared at him and snapped.

"Can't you see she's down? She can't fight anymore so leave her alone!" Desmondaio chuckled with grotesque joy and out stretched his hand with the palm facing upwards.

"My dear boy, are you really so stupid as to believe that I care about her state? I have seen what she can do, from the capacity of that beam she can produce a much more powerful one in the future once she has fully healed. Power that only the rarest of life essences can produce and it is her life essence I have come for." 

"Then you'll be leaving empty handed." Luke growled and shot up, fist balled and aimed straight at the aliens face. Desmondaio cackled and blasted Luke away.

"N...! N...!" Jemima tried to cry out but she just couldn't! 

"Luke!" Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani cried as Luke laid in a crumpled heap, not moving-not even breathing by the look.

"Stupid boy. Brave but very stupid." Desmondaio drawled and a sickening loathing filled Jemima to the brim and then some.

"N...Not...Stupid...!" She growled, her anger and adrenaline fuelling her movements as she stiffly pushed herself to her knees, her body screaming for mercy, for rest, for it all to end.

"What was that, my dear?" Desmondaio mocked her with a sweet falsely interested tone. Jemima glowered up at him as the others watched her move her arms a little towards Luke then her body followed. She was literally dragging herself across the floor to be near him.

"Not stupid...Brave...smart...Bloody b...brilliant...b...but n...never ever...stupid..." She huffed and puffed out before looking to her friend, her expression softening as one of her trembling muddied hands grasped his shoulder. She shook him gently, saying. "Come...on...you need...to w...wake up...say I...told you so...or som...something..." It was an almost heartbreaking scene to watch, especially when Luke didn't respond. 

"Oh, how sweet. You really must care for this human brat, my dear. Shame you won't be around to tell him." He raised his hand and Jemima swivelled round, palm out and sent a blast straight for his chest. Desmondaio was lifted six feet into the air and Kate gave the command to open fire. Some of the bullets pierce him others didn't before he vanished and Jemima collapsed unconscious beside Luke...


	9. Chapter 9

Jemima was in a coma for three weeks after using so much of her energy. Three weeks spent in the medical bay of the UNIT base under the Tower of London, her friends had visited her daily and her goddaughters three times a week. When she woke she was vaguely aware that she had a series of tubes and wires in her as well as a relieved Osgood peering above her.

"What the hell did I do?" She asked, not recalling the events just yet. Bonnie waited a few moments and then it hit Jemima like a ton of bricks. "Luke!" She snapped shooting into a sitting position, nearly headbutting Bonnie in the process, "Is he alright? What did Desmondaio do to him?" She asked, panic stricken, and Bonnie grasped her arms, smiling reassuringly at her as she said soothingly.

"He's fine, he's fine. The impact against the wall just knocked him out and gave him a bit of a concussion. Just calm down, everything's alright now." Jemima nodded, her rapid heartbeat slowing easily to a normal pace as the scarf wearing Osgood helped her lay back down.

"How long have I been out?" Jemima asked the young scientist who smoothed her out then checked her vitals and the other machines.

"Three weeks-"

"Oh shit!" Jemima groaned, covering her face with her hands. "I missed this month's rent, not to mention four job interviews and one of Kayla's radiotherapy sessions, shit." She explained as Bonnie gave her a surprised smirk. While her sister would have probably looked shocked at such foul language, Bonnie found it rather amusing coming from her boss's daughter. Though she did sober up at the list of things Jemima had missed. That wasn't good though. Definitely not. 

"Good news is, you're well enough to be discharged in an hour or so. Bad news is you missed all that and we don't have any of your clothes for you to wear."

"Just lend me a long coat, I'll wear it over this thing. I don't care if they go, I'm going home anyway." Jemima told her flatly, still annoyed at herself for not waking up sooner. Bonnie smiled slightly and said.

"Your friends might have something to say about that, they're currently waiting in Kate's...I mean your mum's office so they can hear the verdict on you before sitting with you." Jemima nodded slightly before she had an idea. 

"Osgood, um...Sorry I don't know which one you are, but I've had an idea." She gave the scientist a slightly mischievous smile that the brunette mimicked as she nodded to show she was listening. "How about you don't tell them I've woken up, you keep them busy in the office for a few minutes before I go in a surprise them? Give them something to smile about, eh? That way people don't have to worry about not getting their hellos in first thing." Bonnie grinned at the idea. She liked it a lot. It would certainly cheer up the others, who had been positively miserable since the incident. 

"Alright, you've got a deal." Bonnie told the younger woman, putting up a mental block with her twin before finishing up and saying. "I'll find something for you to wear, can't have you wearing that ghastly thing round the base. It'd give the soldiers an unexpected distraction." She was gone and Jemima unhooked herself from the machines that were just showing her vitals and heart rate, before drawing back the crisp scratchy covers and musing on how different the Osgood twins appeared to be. Bonnie was bolder and significantly more confident than Petronella who was quite shy and more prone to asthma attacks apparently.

Jemima swung her legs over the edge of the bed, glad when she was able to feel and moved them again. Then she slid from the bed, glad she didn't have a ruddy catheter installed, before Bonnie returned with some clothes.

"You'd be amazed at what they have in storage here sometimes. I'll wait for you to change then we'll go up to Kate's office together-" 

"No it's fine, you go on ahead. I can find my way and if I get lost I'm sure someone will point me in the right direction." Jemima told her and Bonnie nodded slowly, leaving a security pass on the side table for her so she wouldn't get arrested on the way to Kate's office.

Once Jemima was sure Bonnie was gone, she changed briskly and grabbed the pass heading in the opposite direction that Bonnie took. Jemima felt a little guilty for lying to the brunette, they both seemed sweet enough and she could see why her mother had chosen them to be her assistants, but Jemima just wanted to be alone. She didn't want to face the others just yet. She wasn't afraid of what they would think or do, she just needed time to think and to work out a plan. She needed some control and order in her life and she wasn't going to get that by seeing her friends in a Unit base. 

Kate sat in her office behind her desk, Gordy leaning against the wall closest to her, Sarah Jane and her gang in various seats in front of her desk with Brigadier and Poppy, and Josh standing beside the remaining Osgood by the door. They were all dead silent, listening to the ticking of the clock, as they waited for Bonnie to return with an update. Poppy whined softly from her place beside Sky whose lap contained the rough collie's head. 

"I know, old girl, I know." Rani murmured and Brigadier snorted softly from his place beside Luke. 

"I know, mate, I know." Clyde told him before all heads shot up when Bonnie entered.

"Anything?" Kate asked at once, looking incredibly hopeful. Bonnie shook her head with a sad smile.

"Slightly raise BP but that's about it, Ma'am." She admitted, it was true Jemima did have a slightly raised BP but she just didn't say she was awake.

"Can we go see her please?" Sky asked quietly and Bonnie confessed.

"I don't see what good it would do. She won't be able to wake up for at least another day or so." The group sagged a little and Kate sank back against her seat. She needed Jemima to wake up. She needed her to breathe on her own without life support. She needed her to be able to talk to her, heck she didn't care if Jemima screamed and snapped and shouted at her she just needed her to say something! But most of all, Kate needed her awake to tell her that she was sorry. For everything, for every misdemeanour, for every mistake, for every let down she had done by her daughter. She needed to make it right. 

"Did she look alright when you were in there?" Gordy asked the scientist who smiled slightly and stood by her twin.

"Like she was sleeping. She had colour in her cheeks too which is a good sign." Bonnie reported and waited for something to happened. Then they heard footsteps coming up the corridor and Bonnie smirked internally. Oh she couldn't wait to see their faces.

"Ma'am! Ma'am!" Sam Bishop burst into the office, out of breath and concerned. "Miss Lethbridge-Stewart! She's gone! Officers just saw her leaving the base!"

"What?!" Kate snapped, shooting out of her chair which hit the wall behind her desk. She looked to Bonnie who looked rather lost for a moment before saying.

"She tricked me...She came up with the idea of a surprise, I would come in first say there was no change and then she'd walk in. That was the plan...She tricked me, I should have known something was off when she told me she'd find her own way." She looked utterly distraught as she explained and her sister gave her a small comforting squeeze in support.

"Did anyone try to stop her?" Sarah Jane asked Sam who nodded.

"Yes, a few of the officers but she said that she had seen you and was leaving. They let her go after that." Kate nodded before asking.

"Did she say where she was going?" 

"No Ma'am. She just said she was going to where her childhood ended. Whatever that means." Half the group looked confused before Brigadier and Poppy began to whine and tug at their leads.

"Do you think they know?" Josh asked, kneeling down in front of Poppy to give her a small fuss. She nudged him with her nose in the direction of the door. 

"From that I'm guessing yes, Captain Carter, Osgoods with me, Gordy you too. Sarah Jane, can you follow?" Kate stated, snatching up her jacket and coat, summer was most definitely gone and that day it appeared that they had skipped autumn all together. It was chuckling down buckets and it was freezing. 

"Of course, Luke will you be alright with the dogs?" Sarah Jane asked her son who nodded and was swiftly pulled out the room by said canines when the door was opened. 

"Release the hounds!" Clyde cried and Rani pushed him out the door.

"Get a move on we have a Lyric to track down." Kate lead the way to the cars, Poppy and Brigadier jumping into the Unit car with Luke as there was more room.

"Why do you call her Lyric?" Gordy asked Luke as they left the base and Luke looked at him gravely.

"She's got an amazing singing voice, your sister. And it's what she prefers, whenever someone calls her by her given name she turns...Cold and into a harsh person. Said it just didn't feel the same after the Brigadier died." Luke explained and Brigadier snorted. "Not you, your namesake."

"She named her dog after her grandfather?" Josh asked and Luke nodded.

"Brigadier was a gift from Sir Alistair. Lyric's had him and Poppy since they were pups, speaking of which Poppy is expecting pups. Lyric doesn't know yet." He informed them and the Osgoods smiled, gently fussing the collie who soaked up the attention gladly while Brigadier whined slightly, looking rather put out. Luke scratched him behind the ear and Kate watched the Labrador whine all the more before curling up round Luke's feet.

"Looks like we need to find the expectant owner quickly then." Josh stated before there was silence, all looking out the windows for any sign of their subject. 

"Bloody rain, can't see anything." Josh muttered before the car was halted, the driver calling into the back.

"Road's closed due to flooding, Ma'am, I'll try another route." Kate nodded and before long they were reaching the centre of central London when Petronella cried.

"Stop the car!" The driver slammed the breaks, sending half his passengers flying forward then slamming back in their seats, and Petronella pointed to Hyde Park, just going through the gates was a soaking wet Jemima Lethbridge-Stewart.

"Hyde Park..." Luke thought hard for a long moment before stating. "The statue!" The group clambered out, Poppy and Brigadier pulling Luke along hurriedly, before Kate quickly fetched something from the boot of the car.

"I brought a spare coat for her, she's going to need it." She explained to curious looks before Sarah Jane joined them and Sky informed them loudly over the torrential rain.

"She'll go to the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens. She used to tell me stories about when she, Brig and the Brigadier would go for walks in the summer." 

"She was there with me when we got the news about the Brigadier dying." Josh admitted and Gordy and Kate stared at him. "I didn't know she was your daughter! If I did it wouldn't have happened." Josh informed his boss before they marched into the park, Brigadier and Poppy leading the way until they found Jemima, sat curled up at the base of the statue. Luke let Brigadier and Poppy go, both bounding over to their mistress who opened her eyes with a weak smile when she saw them.

"Hello you two, missed me eh?" She asked, her voice barely audible above the rain. It sounded hoarse, grainy and raw. Like she hadn't spoken in years or had been smoking forty a day for twenty years. Brigadier licked her face and ears while Poppy enjoyed her fusses and licked her bare arms and hands enthusiastically. More out of joy of seeing their mistress alive and well but a part of them wanted her dry as well. "Missed you too. How'd you get here?" 

Kate gestured for the others to stay back before she appeared in her daughter's line of sight. Jemima's warm and happy glow of a smile faded, being replace with a look crossed between frightened and defiant. Kate held up her hands in surrender and said softly. 

"I come in peace, unarmed except for a spare coat." The look on Jemima's face didn't waver, in fact when Kate took a step closer, Jemima moved back a little and tensed as if she were ready to run from the scene. Kate stopped then, noticing the movement at once, before unfolding the long overcoat and holding it out to her daughter. "I know it isn't exactly your colour, but it's warm and thick and will stop you from getting even more drenched. Please?" 

Jemima stared at her mother, just stared. She really was like a frightened rabbit in front of a fox. Kate couldn't understand what she had done to make her daughter react like this. She had never hit her, never shouted abuse at her. Perhaps it was something she represented, she was dressed in her work clothes after all. "Please, Jemima. I don't want you getting ill again." She told her and Jemima relaxed slightly, her head tipping forward slightly.

Kate took another step forward, then another and another when Jemima showed no signs of running away, until she was right beside her. Kneeling down, Kate helped Jemima slip on the coat and colour immediately returned to the younger blonde's cheeks. Her mother had been right, it was warm and the heat was very welcomed. "Why did you trick Osgood at the base?" Kate asked her and Jemima didn't answer straight away, she held her canine companions a little closer before saying softly.

"I regret tricking her, she's a nice girl, but I just couldn't deal with seeing everyone just yet. I needed to think, to make a plan or something. I knew I wouldn't be able to do that while seeing everyone, my head would have been even cloudier than it is now." A sopping lock of golden hair slipped from its place to hang lifeless over Jemima's eyes. Kate hesitated for a moment before moving it away, back behind Jemima's ear before resting her palm against the rosy cheek. Jemima only allowed it to stay there for a second or two, she turned her head away, not willing to let herself hope. That hope had died a long time ago.

Kate's hand dropped back into her lap, neither seemed to realise the rain was still pelting down on them, and her gaze dropped down to the dogs. "She's pregnant, you know." Kate told blurted out, unable to stand the silence. That caught her daughter's attention. Jemima's head snapped back to look at her mother, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. "You're going to have puppies running round your house, chewing up carpets, barking at all hours of the night." Kate told her with a small chuckle at her expression and Jemima looked at her canine companions.

"Brigadier, so this is what you get up to when I'm not around, eh?" She asked with a small chuckle before fussing both dogs. "Right, Pops, looks like you're getting some puppy food from now on." She smiled slightly before looking up when thunder cracked. "It's gonna come down harder and I don't fancy being out here when it does." the younger blonde woman observed as she rose to her feet, picking up the leads of her dogs.

"I thought you liked the rain." Kate stated, looking up at her daughter.

"I do, just not when I have a pregnant rough collie who'll need a towel down when she gets in, with me." Jemima shot back before offering her mother a hand up. She may not have been on good terms with her mother, but at least she still had her manners. Kate accepted the hand up and squeezed it gently when she was on her feet but Jemima dropped it quickly, putting Poppy's lead in that hand before saying, traces of bitterness in her tone. "You better be getting back. No doubt there's some crisis that needs your attention." Kate stared at Jemima for a long moment, had she just heard that right? Was She honestly being dismissed by her own daughter. 

"You've been in a coma for three weeks, I haven't seen you in five years and before that nearly every conversation turned into an argument. Do you honestly believe I'm going to let you walk away, especially after coming so close to losing you?" Kate asked her and Jemima's answer was clear on her face. She did believe it. 

"You've got your life, I've got mine. It's how it's always been with us. See ya around, Ms Stewart." Jemima told her casually, but the distance in her eyes spoke louder than her words. She looked to her pets and said. "Come on you two, home." Before turning and walking off. 

"Jemima! Jemima!" Kate called after her daughter, only to be ignored, "Jemima Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart!" She barked and Jemima began to jog away, head ducked and dogs at her sides. 

"That didn't go too well." Clyde stated as the others came out of hiding.

"I'll say. First time I've ever seen Lyric look scared." Sky muttered before Josh looked between Kate, who was still staring downcast at Jemima's back, and the retreating figure before saying.

"When in doubt, send in the cavalry." Before going after Jemima, calling. "Mima! Wait up!" 

"What is he doing?" Rani asked the others and Luke muttered.

"Going after his ex-girlfriend." Rani, Clyde and Sky looked at one another before cringing.

"Sorry for asking." Rani apologised as they watched Josh catch Jemima and stop her in her tracks. Jemima didn't look best pleased at the initial interruption until Josh pulled her into a hug and Jemima clung to him tightly, hiding her face in his jacket.

"And the ex scores major points." Gordy grumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they watched Brigadier growl at Josh, causing the hug to break apart. "But the Brig does not approve, Luke you have a chance-"

"Cut it out, now's not the time. She's got a hell of a lot to cope with, I doubt she'll want a boyfriend added to the mix." Luke told the older man before pulling his coat round himself more securely.

"Can someone please explain to me what that means?" Gordy asked and Sky reeled off grumpily.

"Your sister's on the verge of losing her house, she's been looking for a job for the last six months, she has a goddaughter with leukaemia, a pregnant dog, an alien hellbent on killing her, and she's trying to keep it all from falling apart. That's what Luke means." Guilt and remorse settled in the pits of Kate and Gordy's stomachs, they had no idea Jemima was going through that. And now with the added pressure of Desmondaio, it wasn't the most ideal situation. 

"I had no idea-"

"Maybe if you had thought to stop for five minutes and actually talk to Lyric before her grandfather died, you would have had just the slightest idea." Luke told Kate icily before walking off a head of the group, collar up and head down.

"Luke...I'm sorry, Kate-"

"No, don't be. Your son's right, Sarah Jane. I've got to sort this out with Jemima if we have even the slightest chance of protecting her and the Earth." Kate told the older woman before Gordy wrapped his arm round his mother's shoulders, rubbing her arm gently. Kate covered his hand with one of her own, before Rani told the older blonde.

"We'll talk to Luke and Lyric." Kate nodded as the Bannerman Road gang began to follow the path of two of their friends while Gordy suggested to his mother.

"Lets go home, Mum, you're off duty now anyway." Kate nodded to him before turning to the Osgoods.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Ma'am." Bonnie informed their boss as her twin shifted sadly beside her. Kate nodded again, and said.

"We'll drop you off home, ladies, if you'd like?" Before Petronella could protest, Bonnie agree for them both, giving her twin a discreet dig in the side. 

"Thank you, Ma'am." The pair chorused before they headed back to the car.

Jemima sat on her sofa, clad in grey jogging bottoms and an over sized burgundy jumper that had once belong to her grandfather. A mug of piping hot tea clasped in both hands with Brigadier curled round her feet and Poppy's head in her lap.

"Thank you for bringing me home, Josh." Jemima murmured to the soldier who sat beside her with his own mug of tea.

"Welcome any time, just because we ended on a bad note doesn't mean we can't help each other out every so often." He told her just as quiet as she had been. Seeing her interaction with her mother had been a bit of an education, all those things she had told him when they had been a couple he had cause to believe rather than put it down to exaggeration. "She just wants you safe, you know. She's your mum-"

"Say that again, and I will kick you out into the rain." Jemima told him bluntly, she was in no mood to be lectured about her mother or her motives.

"The part about wanting you safe or about being your mum? Because either way, you're going to have to talk about her soon." Josh questioned her, testing Jemima's patience greatly.

"Oh and why is that?" Jemima asked him hotly in reply.

"Because your friends are going to ask what happened to make you so cold and unfeeling towards her! That's why!"Josh snapped, his reply stunning the younger blonde who stared at him, clearly distraught. "They, like myself and everyone who has seen you interact with her and your brother, don't understand why you aren't beaming with pride each time someone says how alike you and your mother are." Tears began to form in Jemima's eyes at his words, she wanted him to stop, she needed him to stop. "Why you moved away, why you hate your given name, why you don't have any photos of them out on display."

Jemima just stared at him, large unshed tears on the verge of being released, her calm and collected facade on the point of crumbling. Jemima placed her mug on the little coffee table in front of them and gently eased herself from under Poppy's head, making her way towards the hall.

"Where are you-"

"Just shut up and stay where you are, I'll be back in a minute." She told him thickly, her throat dry with a lump forming. She darted upstairs and into her room, grabbing the trunk by her wardrobe and pushing it closer. Climbing onto the sturdy piece of furniture, Jemima reached for a large ageing antique chest and pulled it from the top of the wardrobe. It was caked with dust, a testament of how long it had been since she had last touched it, and marked with the old family crest.

A thistle and a sword crossing over a shield with the scottish flag embossed on it. The key, whilst antique in design like the box, was still in the lock and caked in as much-if not more-dust than the case. Jemima climbed down form the trunk and swallowed thickly, the forming lump making it difficult to do so, before taking it down stairs where Josh was. He had gotten up and walked round to the mantle, just staring at a picture of Jemima with her grandfather, her dogs and the Bannerman Road gang. They were smiling, all with arms round someone, dressed for the summer sun except for Jemima. She was clad in a smart long sleeve blouse with a cream jumper over the top, tan leather elbow patches and black tailored trousers. 

"That was the day my friends found out I was related to the infamous Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Sarah Jane had already worked it out months before, the others just needed a little push." Jemima informed him and he turned quickly on the spot to see her standing in the doorway. "Wasn't long before I moved here." She added for better context, moving to sit back where she had been before. Josh followed suit, eyeing the box cautiously. Jemima placed it down on the coffee table and opened it carefully, the seemingly ancient lock clunking into life. "My step-gran left this to me in her will. I put everything with painful connotations in here and put it on top my wardrobe. Cliche but hey." She shrugged casually before lifting the lid with the precision of a surgeon. 

"When was the last time you looked in here?" Josh asked, slightly worried by the collection of dust.

"Granddad's funeral, I was given one of his military medals and his old Unit beret. I used to wear it when I was little, couldn't see out of it because it covered my eyes." Jemima chuckled sadly as she took the offending items out. Josh gave her a small smile  as she held the beret to her nose and tears clouded her vision once more. "Still smells like him. Brandy, log fires, gun powder and starch." She whispered and quickly placed it and the medal between her mug of tea and the box.

She swallowed slightly before lifting other items out the box; folded up award certificates, competition medals, small trophies-for a moment Josh genuinely believed that the box was like Mary Poppins' carpet bag. Then Jemima stopped taking out things and rested her hands on the edges of the box. She was shaking, Josh quickly glanced at her face to see her silently crying but she didn't appear to notice. "You wanted to know what happened to make me the way I am with them, these should show you why." She told him, reaching in with both hands and bringing out a series of photographs. She handled them like Josh had seen the bomb squad handle most of their charges. Josh accepted them gently, turning them the right way up so he could look at the properly.

The first photograph was of a young blonde woman with two young children, a boy and a girl. The boy looked about four or five with a large toothy grin, the girl couldn't have been more than two with a small shy smile, and both were sat on the grass outside of a canal boat. The grinning young woman was sat with them, arms round the little boy while the little girl was sat against her outstretched boot clad foot. 

"Me, Gordon and Ms Stewart, I assume you can work out who's who." Jemima told him quietly and Josh nodded, looking severely confused. It looked like an ordinary, if slightly adorable, family photo. Jemima gestured for him to move on to the next photo, he did so. This one they were older, stood outside a terraced house with no front garden was Kate, Gordy and Jemima. This time Kate had an arm round Gordy, at about ten or eleven, but wasn't even touching Jemima, who had to be nearly seven. Both children were clad in jeans and t-shirts, a baggy denim jacket hung from Jemima's shoulders while her brother wore a fleece and their mother a Parker. Again it looked like a regular family picture before Jemima gestured from Josh to move on.

"I don't under-"

"Just keep looking, you'll see soon enough." Jemima told him, picking up her mug and drinking deeply. Poppy replaced her head in her mistress's lap while Brigadier snorted and moved closer to the pair. Josh looked back to the photographs and moved to the next one. This one did reveal a little more. Jemima sat in the corner of this photograph, the centre being Kate and Gordy. Gordy must have been fifteen or sixteen while Jemima was just entering her teens. She held a book to her chest, looking positively miserable, while Kate and Gordy were grinning side by side. Gordy was dressed in a football kit, Jemima in jeans and a long sleeved top with an arm in a sling. 

"What did you do? Fall over wrong?" Josh asked her and Jemima shook her head.

"I got beaten to a pulp at school for not saving a goal. It was a mixed football team for all years and both genders. Gordy had to take my place for the match and subsequently for the rest of his time at the school. I was kicked off the team in favour of my brother. I got home in a lot of pain and after I was patched up, Ms Stewart asked me why I couldn't be like my brother. He never got into fights. Not that she knew of anyway." She explained and Josh winced slightly. Jemima loved her sports, he knew that as soon as he had met her, so it must have stung good and proper when she had been replaced by her brother. She gestured for him to look at another and another, each time the distance between Jemima and her family growing larger until he reached the final picture. 

It was Jemima aged eighteen and her grandfather on one side, Kate and Gordy now aged twenty-one on the other side. Jemima had a little black ball of fluff in her arms, Josh assumed that was the black Labrador at their feet, while her grandfather had a Rough Collie pup at his feet, his hands clasping both Kate and Jemima by the shoulders. He was the only thing connecting mother and daughter, both of whom looked so similar and yet so different. Kate must have been heading to or from work as she was still smartly dressed and giving the camera a fond half smile, Gordy was in his military uniform grinning like an idiot, and Sir Alistair in a tweed jacket and smart trousers was smiling tiredly at the camera. Jemima however was barely smiling, she had a massive black eye and bandages were visible on one arm.

"Again, got beaten up at school. This time it was Park Vale, I transferred there when I was thirteen. Two days before I was off to Cambridge I got hijacked by a couple of guys from the lower sixth and was used as a punching bag for a little while until Sarah Jane and Sky found me. That was taken the day I left, also the day Ms Stewart, Gordon and I had largest row in the history of the Lethbridge-Stewart clan. It was not pretty." She sniffed slightly and Josh looked at her, at a loss to say anything. "All those photos document the points where I was reminded that I was never good enough for her. It was always golden boy Gordy and his achievements, I bet she even has a picture of her just her and Gordon on her desk. Did you even know she had a daughter?" Josh shook his head and she sucked in a shaky breath as she collected his stone cold mug and her own. "Knew it. Bloody knew it." She muttered and hurried into her kitchen. 

"Jemima-"

"Please, please for the sake of my sanity call me something other than that. Please..." Jemima pleaded with him, her calm and collected facade beginning to crumble all the more.

"Lyric, I'm so sorry."

"If it hadn't been for the threat that Desmondaio still poses she wouldn't have thought of me. She would have carried on her life as though I never existed, like she's always done. Every competition or parents evening or show case evening that I was in she was never there but if it was Gordy she'd make time for him. By god would she make time for him." She told him gripping the ice cold sink to keep herself grounded and upright. Josh followed and quickly wrapped his arms round her when she began to break down, sobbing. "Always Gordy, just once....Just once I'd like to hear her say that she's proud of me, that she loved me, that I am fine the way I am...Just once..." She began hacking out harsh sobs as she buried her face in Josh's chest and the Unit man knew he had done the right thing in recording the whole conversation...


	10. Chapter 10

Josh had left Jemima sleeping in her bed that night, after she had cried herself dry he had carried her to her room and put her into bed, her canine companions joining her promptly. He made his way to a near by coffee shop, grabbed a drink and something to eat, before heading back to the tower to begin his shift. He left the recording on Kate's desk, that was where she found it the next morning. She listened to it, from started to finish as soon as she heard Jemima's voice, and it broke her heart. She sat staring at the recorder for a long time, taking in every confession, every heart wrenching sob, before snatching up her coat and leaving her office with the recorder in hand. Her paperwork could wait. 

Jemima ran her brush through her hair once more and adjusted her blouse before turning to her canine companions. "So? Do I look like a serious job candidate to you two?" Poppy tilted her head to the side and snorted while Brigadier went to the wardrobe and pulled something out from the bottom. "Ok I forgot I had that." Jemima chuckled and quickly tugged on the dark navy blue blazer he had pulled out for her. She knelt down and gave him a a quick fuss before tying her hair up into an informal bun and turning to her canines once more. Poppy nodded before shooting downstairs with Brigadier at the sound of the doorbell ringing. "Brig! It's your turn!" Jemima called, slipping on a pair of flat pumps and grabbing her rucksack full of interview things.

"Miss Lethbridge-Stewart! Your shining knight in armour has arrived!" 

"Hello Clyde, be down in a sec!" Jemima called, checking herself once more in the mirror before cringing and sighing in frustration. "No, I'll have to do, can't delay any more." She told herself before hurrying downstairs. "Are you sure Sarah Jane won't mind you looking after Brig and Pops till I get back-K9! What on..." Jemima saw the tin dog in her living room then followed to see her friends and godchildren sat on the sofas and floor.

"We came to wish you luck." Sky told her and Jemima gave them a small smile before Kayla got up and ran to her godmother, throwing her arms round her legs. Victoria followed and Pippa pulled herself up to her feet with the help of K9. 

"Careful-"

"Watch." Kayla told her godmother who did so as Pippa grinned and tottered, quickly and steadily towards Jemima, crying.

"Mima!" Jemima beamed, bending down and scooping her up, pressing a kiss to her rosy cheek as the others gasped, awed and cheered quietly.

"Oh well done you clever girl! Got your mummy's brains already!" Jemima chuckled and Pippa threw her arms round her neck, pressing a sloppy kiss of her own to Jemima's cheek.

"Now if that isn't a sign of good fortune, I don't know what is." Sarah Jane told her and Jemima nodded before looking at the time.

"That's not!" She quickly placed Pippa down and shot into the kitchen. "I woke up early for this too! Damn it!" She called, snatching up her keys and her left over toast.

"How far you got to go?" Luke asked her at once.

"It's an hour on the train and if I don't go now I'll miss my train and interview." Jemima told him and he nodded.

"It's half an hour in the car, come on. I'll take you." Jemima gave him a grateful smile headed for the door. "Be good for your daddy girls! Brig, Pops, keep Clyde and the others outta trouble!" She called over her her shoulder and the humans chorused.

"Oi!" As they got outside, the pair climbing into Luke bright yellow beetle, the three little girls ran after the car as it began to leave, waving and wishing their godmother luck until she and Luke were out of the road.

"I owe you big time for this, Luke." Jemima told him and he smiled slightly before saying.

"You can repay me by not going back out with Captain Carter and focusing on getting your fiances sorted out." Jemima nodded at once and said.

"Hopefully after today I can start to do the latter. But why the former? Why should I not go back out with Josh?" 

"He's your ex for a reason, Lyric, and there's just something about him and that collar thing he always wears." Luke told his friend who smiled slightly and said.

"I appreciate you looking out for me, brain boy. Anyway, you're right, Josh is my ex for a reason and I was reminded of that last night when he walked me home. Biggest flirt this side of the Atlantic." Luke smiled slightly as he listened to her giggle before adding. "Besides, there's someone else I like and if he doesn't make a move soon, I'll ask him out myself. I don't even know if he likes me more than a friend." Luke's grip tightened on the steering wheel at this though Jemima didn't notice.

"I'm sure he does, he'll have to be crazy not to." He told her sincerely and Jemima gave him a small smile. The rest of the journey was filled with companionable chatter until they reached the office building and Jemima gulped nervously. "You're gonna be fine, you've got this." Luke told her and she looked at him, eyes filled with self doubt. 

"I told myself that so many times I've started to get de ja vu each time I hear it." She told him before he put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to face him.

"You are going to be brilliant, just be yourself and the rest will follow. You look fine." Jemima nodded, bracing herself on her seat and his arm before leaning forward and pressing a quick peck to Luke's cheek.

"Thanks for dropping me off and the encouragement." Then she climbed out, rucksack on her back, and hurried inside. A pink blush lit her cheeks when she glanced back to see Luke still sitting in the parking space, mouth agape in shock.  _Well, at least we know I've still got a few surprises in me._ The young blonde grinned to herself as she went into the building for her interview, unaware of a dark figure observing her from a nearby building. 

After a few minutes, Luke left the car park heading for home and when he got there Sky met him in the drive way. 

"Hey how did-Hey!" Sky squeaked when Luke picked her up in a hug, spinning her around as he grinned and laughed. Sky clung to her brother to steady herself before she was planted back on her feet, looking at her brother as if he were a lunatic. "What the heck's got you so happy?" She asked him as he locked up his car and headed for the house. 

"Lets just say I've been made a very happy man." 

"You asked Lyric out?! Did she say yes?!" Sky asked him at once, grinning with excited anticipation. Luke shook his head as he opened the front door and said.

"No I didn't ask her out, I gave her a bit of a pep talk because she was feeling nervous and she kissed my cheek. Anyway, what were you doing in the drive? Where's your key?" 

"In my room and Mum probably couldn't hear me knocking."

"I heard that!" Sarah Jane called from the kitchen, coming into the hall with two mugs of coffee. 

"Sorry Mum." Sky apologised sheepishly before asking, "Why do you have two mugs? Is it really that bad a story you're working on?" Sarah Jane shook her head before a voice said.

"Hello Sky, Luke." The two younger brunettes turned quickly and saw Kate standing in the doorway of the living room.

"Oh yikes. Luke run." Sky smirked at her older brother who frowned down at her.

"All I did was give her a lift, nothing to be hung drawn and quartered for." 

"Thank you for helping Jemima out, no doubt she appreciated it." Kate told him and he nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly and shifting from one foot to the other. 

"That's one way of putting it." Sky muttered and Luke grabbed her round the waist and said.

"Ok we are going to hunt down Clyde and Rani before you say anything else." then dragged her away into the kitchen, minding their mother who chuckled after them, shaking her head. Kate watched them wistfully before accepting the mug that Sarah Jane offered her.

"Were Gordy and Lyric ever like that?" Sarah Jane asked with a slight chuckle, the image of Gordy dragging Jemima away like that was a rather comical thing given their relationship and respective heights. 

"No," Kate smiled sadly, "Jemima was never afraid of rough and tumble as you know, but she was always more concerned about keeping the peace rather than destroying it. Number of fights she got involved in while trying to break them up at school was staggering." Sarah Jane nodded with a small grimaced as she sipped her coffee, both taking seats on the sofa.

"I remember once, I was picking up Luke, Rani and Clyde from school when Lyric said hello and had a painful looking black eye. It made her look like half a panda." Kate looked at the older woman, somewhat alarmed by this, before Sarah Jane continued. "Clyde told her that and it made her laugh, she wouldn't say who gave it to her though." Kate nodded before asking.

"Is she always so happy and resilient when she's with you?" Sarah Jane smiled sadly and said.

"Not so much recently, I think everything's collapsing in on her. She won't accept help with it, she's too stubborn like that."

"She gets that from her father." Kate muttered bitterly, drinking some of her coffee.

"Your father used to say it was her bulldog spirit. She won't give up or in easily." Sarah Jane chuckled fondly and Kate smiled a little wider. 

"Dad knew her better than any of us apart from Doris. The moment he set eyes on her and Gordy," Kate shook her head fondly at the memory, "Mum had said he had been just as happy when he first held me." Sarah Jane nodded thoughtfully before saying.

"He loved you all so much, your estrangement from Lyric broke his heart though. He thought after your estrangement from him when they were little would have stopped that happening between you and your children, Kate. He told me so before he died." Kate nodded and protested.

"I didn't exactly plan for it to happen, Sarah Jane-"

"I'm not saying you did, but it's a pity it's happened and all three of you need make it up to each other. Talk to her, listen to her and she will talk and listen to you." Sarah Jane cut her off quickly, she wanted to avoid this becoming an argument at all costs but she also wanted Kate to see the truth of the matter. "You made progress yesterday when you got her to put the coat on, a few weeks ago she'd have shrugged you off and ran-I know your daughter almost as well as my own, Kate, I know that's what she would have done." Sarah Jane had to hold a hand up to stop Kate interrupting her, it was a habit both mother and daughter appeared to possess. Kate nodded before asking.

"I need to sort this out if we have any chance of mending our relationship, do you have any idea where she'll go after her job interview?"

"Here." Sarah Jane stated simply and Kate raised an eyebrow. "Whether she gets the jobs or not, she'll come here to chat and collect Brigadier and Poppy. I said we'd keep an eye on them while she's away and Darren isn't available to look after them."

"Darren?" Kate inquired, that name rang a bell.

"A close friend of hers. His the father of her goddaughters. Darren Rothschild." The older brunette supplied, sipping her coffee.

"Lydia Rothschild's husband?" Kate asked, putting her mug on her knees as she straightened up slightly. Lydia had been a private in her father's days at Unit and a captain in the present before she died. Kate knew Lydia well, and it appeared that Jemima knew her better.

"Yes, Lyric knew Lydia through tutoring and mixed martial arts classes. They were close until Lydia died." Sarah Jane informed the blonde who nodded slowly before Sky came to the door looking fit to burst. "What's got you so excited, Sky?" Her mother chuckled and her and Sky reported.

"Lyric's on her way here, I think it went well. She said something about good old fashion British ingenuity paying off then she hung up on me." Sarah Jane chuckled before putting her mug down.

"Better put the kettle on, we may need a celebratory cup of tea when she gets here." She grinned and Sky nodded, shooting off to tell the others. Kate put her mug on the little coffee table in front of them, making to stand, but Sarah Jane stopped her. "You don't have to go just because Lyric will be here, if you want your relationship to mend you have to start being a part of her life, not a watchful shadow." Kate nodded and remained seated.

Jemima ran from the train station in central Ealing to Bannerman Road, running with the brightest grin she had worn in ages plastered on her face. 

"Hiya Lyric! What's got you so cheerful?" Gita, Rani's mother, called to her when she saw the girl at the top of the road. Jemima slowed, calling to the Indian woman.

"I got the job, Mrs Chandra! I've got a job!" Her tone was more cheerful and full of pride than it had been in months. Gita beamed and congratulated her, informing her that Rani was round Sarah Jane's and Jemima nodded before bidding her farewell, running cross the gravelled drive to the front door. "Sarah Jane! Luke! Sky! Clyde! Rani! It's me, I've got news!" She called knocking on the door rapidly. Rani opened the front door and caught Jemima when she threw herself into Rani's arms, both laughing at the older girl's antics.

"Come on, we're all in the back garden." Rani told her, shutting the front door behind the blonde. Jemima couldn't wipe the grin from her face, it had been too long since she had felt this way and she felt no way inclined to suppress it. "Look who's just tried to break the door down." Rani giggled as Jemima gave a mock outraged cry and swatted at her arm.

"The cheek on you!" Jemima cried before Sky, Brigadier and Poppy bounded towards her and she caught Sky in a hug, both spinning round twice with the force of Sky's lunge. "Hello to you too!" Jemima laughed softly and Sky pulled away asking.

"How'd it go? You were very cryptic on the phone, you had me being nervous, you look-" Jemima clamped her hand over Sky's mouth and asked.

"Why is it every time something happens, you have to start playing twenty questions Sky Smith?" She removed her hand with a gleeful grin when Sky pouted up at her and huffed.

"Would you rather me be a frosty cow like you in a bad mood?" 

"Touche."

"Thank you now tell us the news already!" Sky told her impatiently and Jemima squeezed the young woman tightly for a brief moment with a contemplative look on her face.

"Lyric, don't leave us hanging." Clyde told her.

"Why not?"

"Luke will pin you down and tickle it out of you." Rani threatened and Luke looked up from his phone with raised eyebrows.

"Why me?"

"Because you're the only one maestro over there can't say no to."

"I can if I want to thank you very much, Clyde." Jemima huffed mockingly before Sky whined.

"Lyric!"

"Ok, ok, don't get your knickers in a twist." Jemima chuckled at her young friend before grinning again. She couldn't keep it down, honestly couldn't. "Ladies, gentleman and Clyde, you are talking to Lyric Lethbridge-Stewart, Office Clerk extraordinaire!" 

"You got it?" Clyde asked, happily surprised for his friend who frowned at him.

"Well don't sound so surprised, I did used to work in a pub as a waitress and accountant remember?" Jemima reminded the group before Sky hugged her again and Rani joined.

"Well done mate, looks like things are looking up after all. You'll be paying off your rent in no time." The taller girl informed the blonde who chuckled and was released. Clyde sprang to his feet and clasped one of her hands, giving her a hug saying.

"When do you start?" 

"Next Monday coming, the woman I'm replacing is leaving to be a stay at home mum and she's lovely, just finishing up her loose ends so I can start cleanly." 

"Very considerate of her." Sarah Jane quipped as she received a hug, "And see? Next time was this time." Jemima nodded as she pulled away and confessed.

"Yep, Clyde was right."

"Can I get that in writing?" Clyde asked quickly and Jemima shook her head.

"Not on your life sunshine, now can I please say hello to the parents to be?" She asked and Clyde moved out the way so his friend could kneel and greet her companions. Poppy practically balled her over in her enthusiasm and Jemima laughed softly, hand over her mouth to hide it. She loathed her laugh, utterly hated it. "Easy you, you've got pups to worry about in there." She warned the collie when she propped herself up on her elbows to look at her. Then Brigadier tottered up to her and began licking her face. "Brig, no, don't need a wash...Ah!" Jemima began giggling as the black lab got her ears and she raised her hands to give him a fuss, only to fall back on her back and be pinned by her dog. "No! That tickles! Guys help!" Jemima gasped and giggled and Luke took pity on his friend.

"Come on Brig, let her get up." Brigadier moved away and sat beside his mate, looking very proud of himself as Jemima sat up, blowing her golden curly fringe from her eyes. 

"Thanks a bunch, mind giving us a hand up?" Luke strode over to her, grabbed her hands and in one smooth move got her to her feet. "Ta very much." She grinned up at him before accepting his hug. Sky wolf whistled and Luke moved his head to give his sister a flat look. "Luke, can't breathe." Jemima told him and he quickly let her go, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Sorry, just very happy for you." Jemima gave him a lopsided smile and tweaked his chin gently.

"Smile then or I'll pinch your sides." 

"You wouldn't." Luke told her, backing up with his hands at the ready to grab her when she held them up in preparation.

"She would." Rani, Clyde and Sarah Jane chorused before Jemima smirked and went for him only to miss, Luke side stepping with a small smirk that grew into a smile as he kept dodging her until she tripped, crashing into Kate who had been watching with a small crooked grin. Both Lethbridge-Stewart women went over, Jemima landing atop her mother, both groaning at the collision.

"Sorry..." Jemima grunted and pushed herself to her feet, turning round to help her crash mat up.

"No problem." Kate groaned as she edged herself up into a sitting position. Jemima was momentarily surprised before grabbing her mother's hands gently, tugged twice when her mother didn't grip back, before pulling her slowly to her feet. 

"Easy, you've just had the human equivalent to a sack of spuds land on you." Jemima told her and Sky piped up.

"No way do you way the same as a sack of spuds." Jemima nodded and Kate brushed herself down, saying.

"Trust me, it's not the first time I've been balled over because of you." Jemima gave her mother a flat look at the joke and shook her head.

"Never try that joke again, that was worse than Clyde's blonde bombshell joke." 

"Hey! That one's a classic!"

"It's really bad Clyde!" Rani protested to her boyfriend and Jemima smiled slightly at the pair before her phone began to blare out Another Girl, Another Planet causing the other to smirk as she quickly fumbled with the back pocket of her trousers. 

"Hello?" She answered, flaring red in embarrassment.

"WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?!" Jemima took her phone away from her ringing ear and rubbed it vigorously.

"At a mate's and why are you shouting?! You hurt my ear you idiot!" She shot back, putting her phone to her other ear.

" THERE'S REALLY BAD SIGNAL WHERE I AM SO SPEAK UP AND KAYLA'S MISSING-"

"WHAT?!" Jemima shrieked, eyes wide and all traces of pride and joy faded at once. The rogue tint in her cheeks faded then paled, "What do you mean Kayla's missing?! Darren you better have a bloody good explanation-"

"WHAT?" 

"You know what, stuff it." Jemima hung up and covered her face, exhaling a restrained sigh. "If this has anything to do with Desmondaio, I'm going to lose it big time and I'm not going to be able to control what happens." 

"What do you mean?" Kate asked and Jemima uncovered her face shaking her head.

"Lets just say, anyone messes with my friends or family, they get their arses kicked into oblivion and beyond. Brig, Pops, come on, we have a Kayla to hunt down." She commanded and Sky rushed to get the leads, coming out with both and her jacket.

"Come on then."

"Where are you going?" Sarah Jane asked her daughter, if Jemima was right she wanted to keep an eye on both her children.

"To help look for Kayla. London's huge and we're gonna need all the help we can get." Jemima gave Sky an unsure look and said.

"Sky, if it is Desmondaio, I don't think it's a good idea you come with me." Sky looked upset and outraged by this, they had been defending the earth together for years! She was old enough to handle herself in those situations.

"Yeah from what we've seen he's a nasty piece of work." Clyde told the youngest Smith and Jemima accepted the dogs leads off Sky.

"Any of you, Clyde." Jemima told the group, kneeling down and clipping the correct lead to the correct collar.

"Whoa, wait what?" Rani asked, half way through putting on her own jacket. Clyde looked at her as if she'd just slapped him, Luke looked extremely confused while Sarah Jane was pretty sure she was hearing this wrong. Kate stared at her daughter, blatantly shocked. Had she forgotten what she did for a living?

"You heard me, Rani, if it is Desmondaio I don't think it's a good idea you lot get involved."

"Ok who are and what have you done with our Lyric?" Clyde asked her and Jemima looked at her wrist watch quickly before asking.

"Longer I stand here chatting, the longer Darren, Victoria and Pippa go out of their minds with worry. So the long and short of it is, you don't get involved for two reasons. One, I'm the reason he's here he's my problem, secondly last time we faced him Luke and Sarah Jane were kidnapped along side my brother and my ex-boyfriend, Luke gained a concussion, I was landed in a coma for three weeks and I had Sky in tears petrified of what Desmondaio would do to you if I didn't do something. I'm not risking that again." Jemima told them firmly, breathing heavily from her rapid explanation before Sky finished putting on her jacket and said.

"Come on." Jemima stared at her as the stubborn teen walked past her.

"Did nothing I just said go into your skull?"

"Free country, Mister Mime, now are we hunting down your goddaughter or not?" Sky shot back and Jemima pinched the bridge of her nose, following her saying.

"You're stubborn, just like your mother." 

"I take that as a compliment." Sky grinned cheekily at the young blonde, following her out the garden.

"Ok, did we just witness Lyric get her backside kicked by the girl she calls her non-biological little sister?" Clyde asked and Luke nodded, giving an impressed whistle.

"Are you lot coming or not?!" Jemima called irritably from just beyond the gate and the others followed quickly, Kate taking out her phone.

"No need to take that tone with us, young lady, we only want to help." Kate told her sternly and Sky saw she saw Jemima flinch almost inconspicuous before Jemima's phone went off again.

"Oh if this is Darren he better pray he has better signal this time." She muttered and answered her phone.

"Hello, this is the bonkers blonde from Cavendish Court, how may I be of assistance?" She asked in greeting before she nearly dropped her phone. 

"Hello young one."

"Ok, ok, if you have my goddaughter you better pray I don't tear you limb from sodding limb when I find you." She told him, her grip so tight on her dogs' leads that her knuckles turned white and cracked under the strain. Sky gently covered the fist, but it didn't loosen like it usually would. In fact, it tightened. Desmondaio chuckled darkly, the sound of tiny sobs could be heard in the background. Jemima's fury faded, she recognised those sobs-she had heard them every time they watched The Velveteen Rabbit for goodness sake! 

"I want my auntie!" Kayla wailed then screamed and Jemima squeezed her eyes shut.

"Lyric? What's going on?" Luke asked her softly when he noticed her beginning to shake. 

"Auntie! I want my auntie!" Kayla screamed and Luke covered Jemima's hand, slipping her phone from her hand and putting it on loud speaker, loud enough for only the group to hear. "Auntie Mima! Help me Auntie please!" Jemima covered her mouth and Kate quickly wrapped her arms round her daughter. Jemima didn't push her away like Kate assumed she would, in fact she gripped her mother's back in a painfully tight grip as Desmondaio spoke again.

"If you want the child to remain alive, young one, you know what you have to do. You do it alone, or the child dies." Jemima raised her head, tears streaming fast and furious down her cheeks at that before she took back her phone and said.

"You swear that you won't harm a hair on her head until I do this. You swear it and you better mean it or even the Pantheon of Discord won't be able to help you. Swear it." 

"I swear." 

"Auntie!" The line went dead and Jemima stuffed her phone back in her pocket. She chewed her lip, stepping out of her mother's arms and taking small steps then retracting them, her expression thoughtfully frantic with great tears still streaming from her eyes.

"You really want to say something, don't you?" Luke asked her and she nodded. "Go ahead."

"Shit, this is all my fault, shit. Darren's never going to forgive me, Lydia will be turning in her grave, I broke my promise to her and the girls and oh god not two hours ago Kayla was safe and...Oh my Christ if Desmondaio's got Kayla that means the shield stopped working and he can go after Viki and Pippa-" Rani grabbed Jemima by the arms and shook her forcefully snapping.

"You are not going to lose it, not you Jemima Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart. Not the girl who's always kept her head, who's always watched our backs, you are not going to fall apart. Got it?" Jemima nodded, looking just a tad frightened of the Indian girl, before Rani released her and Jemima wiped her face.

"Better?" Kate asked her and she nodded, sniffing a little.

"You're quite frightening when you want to be, Rani."

"Not half as bad as you when you're you and ticked off." Rani shot back and Jemima offered a weak smile before taking a deep breath and taking a thick solid black ribbon from her pocket, using it to tie her hair back.

"Come on, lets go get my goddaughter back." The others nodded in agreement, then Kate's mobile rang...


	11. Chapter 11

"If they need you, go. We can handle this." Jemima told her mother as she looked straight at her, Kate answered her phone after that.

"Stewart...Yes, I'm with her now. He has one of the little girls, Kayla I believe. Can you get a fix on his location? Good, send me the map specs and I'll meet you, Captain Carter, Lieutenant Bishop and a squad at a point within a mile radius. Bring Gordy along too if you can, we can use some of his combat surveillance skills. Right." Kate hung up and turned to her daughter who looked surprised. "You and your goddaughter are our top priority, Desmondaio better be prepared to face two Lethbridge-Stewart women." 

"I'm either dreaming or this is really happening." Jemima stated before shaking her head and heading down the street. 

"Where are you going?" Clyde asked, really confused by his friend.

"Kayla's this way you moron, it's quicker if we go this way rather than the long way round and get stuck in traffic." Jemima told and Sky grinned.

"And she's back to normal!" 

"I'll be back to normal when I have Kayla back safe and sound...Also after I have a proper cup of tea after this." Jemima shot back before she carried on walking, Luke rolled his eyes and got in his car, his mother, sister and friends getting in the little green Figaro. Luke pulled out the drive first, motioning for Kate to get in the back. The older blonde did before Luke pulled up beside Jemima and honked his horn.

"Get in you moron." He told her with a smirk, and Jemima folded her arms with a flat look.

"You were given legs for a reason you know."

"Do you want to walk however long this trip is?" Luke asked and she sighed, before conceding defeat.

"Fair warning in the back, you may be sat on by one or both of the dogs." 

"I've had worse." Kate told her, getting a small rueful smile in reply. It was progress, it was most definitely progress. Kate was joined in the back by both dogs before Jemima sat in the front passenger seat and buckled herself in.

"Scared?" Luke asked her after a while. Jemima looked down at her lap, staring at her fingers as they played with one another, before nodding.

"He means it, Luke. If I don't face him alone he will kill her. This is all my fault, I should never have dragged you and the others into this." Luke kept his eyes firmly on the road, briefly glancing at Jemima out the corner of his eye, while saying.

"We're your friends, your best friends I should say. We'd go to hell and back for you just like you would for us. And this is not your fault-"

"It is, Luke, if I hadn't been so stupid when I was a kid Desmondaio wouldn't even be here." Kate looked at her daughter seriously, this was new.

"What do you mean, darling?" Kate asked her and Jemima chewed her lip, pushing her fringe out of her eyes before saying.

"Take a left at the next crossing." Luke nodded then waited for her to explain, "Desmondaio has haunted me since I was a kid. A really little kid, I was six when I first met him. You were out working, you thought Gordy and I were asleep and left our step-dad to look after us." Jemima checked the road sign and nodded when Luke gestured to the first left they were approaching. 

"I crept out because I wanted to look at the stars and I couldn't from my room, I went into the back garden and saw this shooting star really close falling through the sky and it landed not far from the house. So, me being the reckless cow I am, I pulled on my wellies and went through the gap in the panel fence. Followed the debris till I found the crash site." Kate listened, hooked and curious, this had been their longest conversation without it turning into an argument in years. 

"I thought I'd find a great lump of space rock but I found a little boy, whiter than snow and covered in scales. But when I touched him to see if he was ok, he didn't feel like scales. He felt like paper, cold and thin. So very thin..." She shuddered slightly, thin was an understatement. The boy had been emaciated. 

"He woke up and he looked so afraid, I thought he was going to get up and do a runner or something but he was hurt. Couldn't move much, done his ankle in. He didn't say anything, just stared at me until I took off my dressing gown and wrapped it round him. He thanked me and he sounded so sweet and shy I found him rather adorable." She chuckled slightly at her younger self and her naivety, oh ignorance is bliss when so young.

"We talked about who we were, what our names were, how old we were that kind of thing. He mimicked my movements a lot and when he tried moving his leg, it hurt him a lot. So I did what came naturally to me, I breathed on my hand and made it glow before putting it on his injury. It healed him," She paused and looked at her mother in the rear view mirror. Kate had one of those hard to link looks on her face. It was soft and patient but there was something else there. Something Jemima didn't recognise. 

"He said I was just like him, I had a gift like he did. He breathed on his hand and it glowed too and I felt like I finally found someone who understood me. I didn't have to hide what I was with him. Then there were voices and lights, people were coming our way and we needed to hide. I hid him in a hollow tree stump and hid in the bushes close by, so he could still see me but no one else could." Jemima looked at the road signs again before saying. "Second exit on the roundabout." Luke nodded, still listening. 

"After the people went, he told me there was a place out in space where I didn't need to hide who or what I was, that he could take me there and it would be alright. I'd be safe, and..." She swallowed hard, not daring to look at her mother as she confessed. "I thought, hey no one will miss me on Earth, what have I got to lose? He knew that, he could see my memories. I nearly went with him, I was so close to going with him, and then I thought, but who's going to stick around for the other kids like me? The kids who need to feel validated and wanted and loved, so I stayed. But I made him promise not to forget me and he gave me his hand and swore on his mother's grave he wouldn't." 

"And he didn't." Kate stated solemnly and Jemima shook her head.

"No he certainly didn't. But just before he could get away he made me promise something in return. He made me promise that if I ever saw him again, I wouldn't judge him by what he's done but by what he chooses to do in future. And that's what I've got to do. He's made his choice to kill me and take my life essence so my dad can die and not make me the last of our kind-"

"And you're going to let him?!" Luke asked her as if she had gone quite mad.

"No you complete plonker! You know for a boy genius you can be so stupid at times." Jemima told him bluntly before softening and saying. "I'm going to judge him, kick his arse back into outer space and have a bloody cup of decent tea even if it kills me." 

"You really want that cup of tea, don't you?"

"So would you if you were in my shoes. The last thing I want is for the last cup of tea I had to be the one I had in the presence of my ex in one of Granddad's old jumpers and a pair of jogging bottoms!" Jemima told him seriously. They glanced at each other out the corners of their eyes before snorting into laughter. "I can't believe I just said that out loud." Jemima laughed from behind her hands, pressed tightly against her mouth. Kate laughed softly at the pair, oh how young love was blind, while Luke shook his head, laughing at the absurdity of it all. Then he slammed on the breaks, his car screeching to a halt like the one in front.

"The hell?!" He snapped and Jemima stuck her head out her window.

"Oh that's not good." She stated before bringing her head back in and unbuckling herself. "I'll meet you there, there's a lane diversion up a head. Don't worry, I won't do anything until you get there." She promised, about to get out the car when Brigadier whined, and Poppy barked softly. "You two stay with Luke and my mother, look after them and Pops, take care of yourself and the pups." She told them before getting out and hurrying to the pavement, then running down the street as fast as she could.

"She's mental." Luke stated simply, watching Jemima's shrinking figure running at full force.

"But you love her." Kate shot back with a small smile before asking, "Is she always so gung-ho?" 

"When it comes to saving the world? She wants to do her bit whenever she can. She says it makes her feel useful." Luke informed the older blonde before they began to move again, taking the diversion with Kate giving him directions now.

Jemima ran down streets, climbed over two walls and a fence to find the Unit chap waiting for her. 

"Had a bit of a run, Mime?" Josh smirked at her when he saw her and she nodded fairly.

"Could say that, soldier boy, and your boss is on the way with Luke, Sarah Jane, Clyde, Rani, Sky and my dogs. So fair warning." She informed him and he nodded before the Osgoods noticed her. Jemima nodded to them and quickly walked over to them, catching hold of the pile the scarf wearing Osgood was carrying as it nearly toppled over.

"Thank you, Miss Lethbridge-Stewart." She wheezed and her twin reminded her.

"Inhaler." Jemima took the pile from the Osgood so she could use her inhaler and placed the pile where her twin indicated to. 

"Listen, Osgood, I'm sorry for tricking you yesterday. I don't know why I did it instead of being honest like I usually am, but I did and I am sincerely sorry about it." Jemima told Bonnie who nodded and patted her shoulder gently before Josh joined them and said.

"Glad to see you're making friends, Mime, it suits you being in a crowd."

"Better than being alone like you, Captain." Jemima shot back casually before Sam Bishop called the Captain over to help him unload some of the heavier equipment. 

"You know Captain Carter well?" Petronella asked as she and her twin set up their portable computer system. Jemima blushed slightly as she sifted and folded her arms.

"You could say that. I was the conquest that went wrong I suppose." The twins looked at her sharply and Jemima's eyes widened in realisation, "I dumped him rather than he dumped me and that had never happened to him before!" Jemima added quickly, calming them before they turned to the computer system. "I may sound stupid but what's this for?"

"Monitoring the area for Desmondaio or his shadow minions," Sam said as he joined them and Jemima nodded to him in greeting. "Lieutenant Sam Bishop, Miss, pleasure to meet you." Jemima smiled grimly and nodded.

"Likewise, Lieutenant, just wish it could be under better circumstances." She told him before she spotted a flash of army green combat uniform and excused herself, heading straight for it. "So you're helping out here?" Jemima asked the soldier from behind him, making him straighten in shock. He turned and relaxed a little.

"Yes, Mum asked the Osgoods to bring me along to help. There's a kid at risk."

"I know, that kid is Kayla, my middle goddaughter." Jemima informed her brother who turned grim and asked.

"How are you so calm about this?"

"I had a minor breakdown and some sense shook into me. Besides, I'm used to dealing with aliens." Jemima explained to him before Gordy hesitated then patted her head. "Oh for god sake." Jemima muttered and hugged him, arms wrapped tightly round his torso. Gordy was shocked for a moment, he hadn't been expecting this from his estranged sister. "I'm not letting go until you hug me back. I don't know whether I'll see you again after this, or how long it'll be before I do see you again." Gordy smiled slightly and wrapped his arms round his sister's slight form tightly.

"Wow, miracles do happen." Josh stated in shock from beside the Osgoods and Sam, just as Kate and the others arrived.

"Ma'am." Josh and Sam saluted their boss as she approached, Brigadier and Poppy on either side of her, while the Bonnie nodded to her and Petronella smiled a little in greeting.

"What have we got so far?" Kate asked, looking to the Osgoods. They turned to the computers, one of them hitting a key. On the screen flashed a view of the area from CCTV cameras, all showing no signs of Desmondaio or Kayla.

"Nothing. We've got nothing." Clyde stated before a voice said.

"Try removing the filters looking specifically at Desmondaio and his energies, replace them with ones looking for cloaking shields, bio-dampers, that sort of thing." The group turned and saw Jemima standing behind them, arm wrapped round her brother's waist while one of his was slung round her shoulders. "Trust me, it's going to be a long day otherwise." Kate nodded her permission to the Osgoods while Sarah Jane winked at Jemima in approval. She had learned a great deal from the journalist and her friends.

"There!" Sky pointed to one of the monitors and Jemima moved to her side, and bit her lip nervously.

"What is that thing?" Josh asked and Petronella Osgood guessed.

"I suspect some sort of machine, a converter of sorts..."

"Wait is that...? That's Kayla!" Rani pointed at the small body inside the machine. Jemima bit her lip harder and ran a hand through her fringe.

"Right, so what do we do? Frontal assault to distract Desmondaio while a team cracks the girl out of the machine?" Josh guessed and Kate shook her head.

"No, Desmondaio would kill Kayla as soon as he sees us." She stated before Luke asked.

"What about Lyric goes in first, occupies Desmondaio's attention and we get Kayla out?"

"It's a possibility but if Desmondaio cuts the chat short it could give the rescue team away." Gordy stated and Jemima looked harder at the machine, she recognised the design but couldn't think where from.

"Ok, do we just send in Mima and hope for the best?" Josh asked and Brigadier growled at him for that.

"Any ideas would be welcomed, Lyric." Sarah Jane told the young blonde who ran her hand through her fringe again before it clicked.

"Oh that's crafty." She muttered to herself, looking slightly impressed before Sky whacked her in the arm. "Ow, sorry but it is. Not everyone can construct a suspended animation chamber, you know, I'm allowed to be a tiny bit impressed."

"A what?" Sky asked and Luke quickly answered.

"A suspended animation chamber, it stops the animation process so in essence it stops the body from growing and healing. You are literally frozen in the chamber, not growing, not mending and not ageing."

"He's good." Bonnie stated and Luke smiled politely.

"Thank you, I read a lot." Jemima rolled her eyes, moving closer to him subconsciously. Kate, Josh, Sarah Jane, Sky and Rani noticed but said nothing, now was not the time for romance based jokes.

"So why put her in there if he's going to possibly kill her?"

"Stop her getting in the way when he tries to kill me. Desmondaio won't kill unless necessary, they get in his way or pose some sort of threat. He won't kill an innocent child unless they get in his way and Kayla would." Jemima explained before removing her blazer and tying it round her waist, adding. "She takes after me like that." 

"You did help to raise her." Sarah Jane stated in a matter of fact tone and Jemima gave a small chuckle.

"Boy don't I know it." She humoured gently before she noticed something on one of the monitors. "Ok that's not good." The others looked at the monitor showing the energy ratings, they were increasing with every measurement.

"Where's that energy coming from? Osgood?" Kate asked the sisters who searched for a fixed source.

"It's coming from the machine." Bonnie announced, dread clear in her voice.

"He's powering it up, if that thing gets activated Kayla's going to be frozen in time." 

"Oh no he doesn't." Jemima muttered and began walking briskly in the direction of Kayla's location.

"Oh no you don't." Gordy told her, following and quickly stopping her. "You go in there like this, and you're going to land yourself in a coma again or worse."

"That's my goddaughter, Gordy! My middle goddaughter who was screaming for me to help her earlier, I'm not going to stand by and let her be frozen in time!" Jemima shot back, moving round him only to be grabbed round the waist and picked up. "Put me down!" She cried and he did, placing her back where she had been stood before.

"Just calm down and think about this. If you go barging in there like a bull in a china shop, how is that going to help Kayla? Hm?" 

"I can get Desmondaio to release her and I can move her a safe distance away!" Jemima told him imploringly, her eyes begging for her brother to let her pass. 

"Do you really believe he would do that?"

"I hope he will." Jemima told him, getting desperate now. They were running out of time.

"Hoping is different than knowing." Gordy told her calmly, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Hope is all I've got left keeping me together, if I give up hope I'm not sure of what I'll do and that terrifies me!" Jemima snapped and Luke said.

"Let her go, Gordy." The siblings looked to him as he came over, hands in his pockets.

"You can't be serious." Gordy told him and Luke nodded, calm and collected unlike his crush.

"Deadly serious, just take this with you." He pulled out something from his pocket and pressed it into Jemima's hand. She nodded, understanding his gift and motives, before hugging him tightly, murmuring.

"I'm sorry." Luke squeezed her tightly and told her.

"Don't be sorry, just come back in one piece." Jemima pulled away and shook her head.

"Not for what's to come, for this." She informed him before reaching up on her tip toes, her free hand holding onto his shirt, and pressing a quick and light kiss to his lips. Then she darted round her brother and ran as fast as she could towards Kayla's location.

"Jemima! Jemima wait!" Kate called but it was no use. Her daughter was too far gone to hear her. 

"Now I remember why I went out with her, her loyalty knows no bounds." Josh smiled slightly and Luke cleared his throat disjointedly, a red hue appearing in his cheeks, his lips still tingling from the briefest touch of Jemima's lips on his. It had been like the briefest firework explosion in his mind and he hoped it would happen again after all this mess. "Come on, lover boy, lets watch your girlfriend kick ass." Josh told him and Gordy and Luke returned to the monitor, the armed squad joining them to watch.

Jemima skidded to a halt in the area where the machine was and gulped down as much air as she could while checking that Desmondaio was no where in sight. She couldn't see him and darted towards the machine, she could see Kayla. She looked as if she were asleep and she hoped to god that she was just asleep. Jemima focused on the little girl's face and slammed her palm against the glass of the door.

"Kayla! Kayla, sweetheart, wake up I'm here. Auntie's here, please wake up, please." She called through the glass, slamming her palm against the glass repeatedly but the girl didn't appear to stir.

"She won't wake."

"Shit!" Jemima swore as she jumped, whipping round at the sound of the voice. In front of her stood a old man in dark clothes, short shock of greying hair and hard features. "Who the bloody hell are you? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!" Jemima questioned hotly of the old scottish man who smiled slightly and said.

"I'm an old friend, Jemima Puddle-Duck." Jemima relaxed a little, eyes wide with surprise. There was only ever one person who called her that.

"Doctor...?" She breathed and the old man smiled a little wider.

"Jemima Lethbridge-Stewart, been a while."

"Six years, I saw a different face that time though and it was your fake funeral." Jemima joked weakly before looking back to her goddaughter. "Can't you get her out? What about the sonic? Could that help?" She asked the time lord, her hand reaching to touch Kayla's smaller one. The glass stopped her and Jemima pressed her hand flat against the barrier.

"Deadlock sealed, the sonic wouldn't even crack it." The Doctor confessed and Jemima rested her forehead against the glass. "Who is this girl to you?"

"My goddaughter, I swear if I have to say that to one more person I'm going to scream." Jemima informed the old man before she furrowed her brow. The Doctor already knew that, she had told him about her goddaughter's when he had given them a lift back to Bannerman Road in the Tardis. He had told her that she would still be looking out for them even in their thirties, how could he have forgotten? "But...You already knew who she is to me." She stated, freezing up at once, "You told me that I'd still be looking out for them when they were all grown up." She raised her head slowly, looking at his reflection in the glass.

"Lot of things happen, I forget things."

"No you don't. You remember everything, every little detail of everything you've seen." Jemima shot back, dread settling like a seed in her stomach. "Game's up, Desmondaio. Trick's failed." She told him, watching as smoke enveloped the Doctor and when it faded, Desmondaio stood behind her, tall and proud...


	12. Chapter 12

"Ok, you've gotta admit. That's pretty cool." Clyde stated and some of the group agreed as they watched from camp. Kate chewed her lip anxiously, she didn't like the way this was going. 

"You came." Desmondaio stated and Jemima nodded, turning round to face him.

"If you wanted my attention, you could have just called instead of kidnapping Kayla. She needs rest and her medication if she's got any hope of beating her cancer, Desmondaio." She informed the assassin who bowed his head for the briefest of moments before snapping his fingers. The glass door popped open and Jemima turned quickly, opening it and catching Kayla when she fell from the moulding.

"Wha...? Auntie...?" Kayla asked in a daze and Jemima nodded, hoisting her securely into her arms. 

"It's me, angel, I'm right here." Jemima reassured her soothingly, holding her tightly.

"You came...! I knew you would, you never let me down!" Kayla beamed and wrapped her limbs round her godmother to keep herself in place. Jemima turned back to Desmondaio and said.

"Thank you, I knew you wouldn't hurt her if you didn't need to, thank you." Desmondaio tilted his head to the side as if he was confused.

"How did you know that?"

"You didn't hurt Victoria, once you had my attention you didn't need her and didn't hurt her. But that soldier who got in your way, the one you injured with your energy, you hurt him because he stood between you and me. Despite your intentions, there is some good in you for operating like that." Jemima explained, rubbing Kayla's back soothingly before ducking down, keeping Kayla protected with her body, when a bolt of dark energy narrowly missed the pair.

"There is no good in me, young one."

"You haven't harmed a child, there is good in you if you can't harm a child!" Jemima protested and Desmondaio stared at her blankly. "Remember? Remember when we first met? You were a child, so was I and you were hurt. You could have killed me outright then and there and no one would have known it was you. But you didn't, you let me live and you let me help you when you were injured."

"Do you honestly believe that everything has good in it?"

"I honestly hope that everything has good in it. Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all. Emily Dickinson." Jemima recited before she untangled herself from Kayla, placing the girl on her feet gently. "I'm leaving but I'll be back. I'm taking Kayla somewhere safe then coming back so we can finish this. If she doesn't get help soon her symptoms are going start getting painful again and I can't let that happen. Alright?" Desmondaio was silent, out stretching an arm pointed at the way Jemima had come. Jemima nodded and thanked him before taking Kayla's hand and walking with her towards the exit.

"You aren't actually going back, are you Auntie?" Kayla asked her aunt in a whisper and Jemima replied.

"Of course I am, I mean what I say and say what I mean. Now, when I see your daddy next don't be surprised if I tell him off for shouting down the phone at me. I did not ap-" 

"You'll not see him again, my dear." Jemima's eyes widened and she quickly pushed Kayla forward yelling.

"Run Kayla!" Then she was swarmed in dark shadows, a shrill blood curdling scream erupting from the cloud. 

Kate's legs nearly gave way when the scream echoed through their sound system and she ordered Josh to take half the squad, Rani and Sky to where Kayla was to make sure she got to camp safe.

"He's got her. He's got her and he's going to kill her. I should have gone with her!" Luke kicked the front tire of his car.

"Luke, getting angry isn't going to help anything." Sam told the younger man who sat on the hood of his car with his head in his hands. 

"Where would he go? Where would he take her?" Sarah Jane asked, hands planted firmly on her hips as she tried to think.

"It would have to be somewhere particular to both of them. Somewhere familiar to both himself and Jemima to make her murder more comforting to her. This is a sympathy killing, comfort would be key to both victim and killer." Gordy stated, rubbing his worn face in frustration, while his mother folded her arms looking worried and grim.

"Please don't refer to your sister as a victim, she won't thank you for that when we get her back." Kate asked of her son who nodded with an apologetic look. 

"Sorry, Mum, but she already could be dead and her killer will go back to where he comes from, be it one planet or another." Gordy told his mother and Luke lifted his head from his hands slowly.

"Another planet...Another Girl, Another Planet!" He cried and the group looked at him as if he'd gone mad.

"The song by blink-182?" Petronella asked and Luke jumped down from the hood of his car.

"It's Lyric's ringtone! She had her phone on her when she was taken, if we call her, her phone should emit a signal and we can lock onto that signal to find out where she is." 

"Luke you are a genius." Gordy told him and Clyde stated.

"We know that."

"It's why Jemima fancies him." Gordy grinned with a chuckle as his mother's assistants looked at one another with grins.

"We can try, Luke. Call her." Bonnie told the younger brunette who did as he was told. It rang four times before going to voicemail.

"Hi this is Jemima Lethbridge-Stewart, otherwise known as Lyric or as the bonkers blonde from Cavendish Court, I'm not able to get to the phone at the minute so if you leave me a message I'll get back to you asap." Then a beep and Luke hung up.

"She calls herself a bonkers blonde?" Sam asked, a little dubious about the young woman.

"She hangs around with us and calls her dogs her babies, she's nuts." Rani declared as she, Sky, Josh and Kayla returned with their half of the armed squad.

"You ok, Kayla?" Clyde asked the little girl who shied away, hiding behind Sky in the presence of new people. The Brigadier and Poppy totted over to her and she hugged them tightly, sniffling softly.

"I want my auntie..." Luke went to the little girl and knelt down, bending down to look her in the eyes as he said.

"We're going to get your auntie back, Kay. We're going to get her back and I promise you, we'll get her back safe and sound." Kayla large brown eyes stared at him tearfully as her bottom lip quivered and she threw her little arms round Luke's neck instead of the dogs.

"It hurts, Uncle Luke, I want Auntie to make it better. I want Auntie...!" Luke picked up the little girl and rubbed her back saying.

"Ok, ok. You are going home and having your meds so it doesn't hurt anymore, ok?" Kayla nodded and Sam said.

"I'll take her home, you're needed here Luke." Kate nodded in confirmation with the suggestion and Sam smiled kindly at Kayla saying. "Hey Kayla, my name's Sam. I'm going to take you home, ok? Then I'm going to help your friends get your auntie back, alright?" Kayla nodded before allowing Luke to pass her over to the soldier. As Sam carried her past Josh she looked at the captain and said.

"You're the soldier that cheated on my auntie, aren't you?" Josh cleared his throat uncomfortably as Gordy cracked his knuckles by his side and Kate grimaced at the captain. 

"I didn't cheat on your aunt, Miss, I may have flirted with other girls but I never cheated." Kayla frowned at him, causing Sam to smile slightly.

"Still not very nice thing to do when you have a girlfriend." Josh conceded that before Sam took Kayla to one of the unit trucks they had brought with them. 

"Ok, I've got a fix on Jemima's phone." Petronella declared quickly, "Strange, he's taken her to that depot. The one from before." 

"Looks like this is going to be a delicate job." Josh stated before Sky asked.

"What do we do?" The group looked at one another before Sarah Jane said.

"I have an idea." All heads turned to the older woman who had a small smile on her face and her hands on her hips. 

Jemima came to with a small groan. Oh how her head was throbbing, she hadn't felt like that since fresher's week at university. She moved her cover her head with her hands only to find herself bound and in some form of machine.

"What the-AH!" She tried moving her torso, to test her bindings, when pain shot through every nerve ending in her body. She looked down, eyes widening in fear and panic. She had a thin metal arm inserted into her abdomen.

"Don't struggle too much or you'll do damage to your nerves." Desmondaio rasped at her and Jemima looked at him, pained and frightened. She wouldn't have been able to hide it from him anyway. Desmondaio had gotten into your head once, he could do it as many times as he liked. 

"Why are you doing this?!"

"It's my job." Desmondaio retorted flatly, concentrating on the machine he was operating.

"It doesn't make any sense! What's this thing for? I thought you were going to kill me, not stick me a box!" Jemima quizzed the assassin incredulously, feeling completely confused by the situation. Desmondaio ignored her, focusing solely on the machine, inputting commands and settings, and Jemima told him. "You know it's considered rude on this planet to ignore someone."  Again she was ignored and she grimaced before cringing when she tried to pull at her restraints again. 

"I told you not to struggle-"

"I've got to do something! I can't very well hang about while waiting for a rescue, and believe me if my friends have anything to do with it there will be! That and it keeps my brain stimulated." Jemima retorted irritably as she tried to slip her hands through her bindings. It only served to rub her wrists raw.  _Come on guys, where are you?_ Jemima thought desperately looking round her surroundings. It was the old storage under the depot, the one where she had found her brother and friends when they had been kidnapped. "You're rather fond of this place, aren't you?"

"You were once."

"Oh great, you're going to do whatever this is to me where I used to hide out in. Smashing, absolutely wonderful." Jemima stated sarcastically, before she heard barking. She recognised it at once. "Brig..." She breathed in relief as Desmondaio's attention was snatched from the machine. "Brig! Brigadier! Down here boy!" She yelled as loud as she could, "Get help, Brig!" Jemima called only to be silenced when the machine began to whirl into life. "Oh not good." Jemima muttered as Desmondaio passed her, heading straight for the door. 

"Lyric! Hold on!" She heard Josh yell from behind the door.

"Not exactly going anywhere Josh!" Jemima yelled back as the door and the metal gate flew from their hinges at Desmondaio's command. "Josh! You might want to brace your-" A primal screamed was ripped from Jemima's throat as the machine began its work. Her body felt like it was on fire, her heart racing as if she was running from the dogs of hell, every molecule of her being was screaming in agony as she felt like her soul was being sucked from her at an agonisingly slow pace. 

"Hold on Lyric!" Clyde yelled to the slightly older woman as Desmondaio joined them on the ground floor. The Unit chaps had their guns trained on the alien, the Bannerman Road gang stood behind them with Kate and the Osgoods.

"I'm trying!" Jemima yelled to them before another screaming was torn from her throat. Most there had never heard anything like that before, it was the stuff of nightmares and your darkest thoughts. 

"This is your final warning, Desmondaio. Leave Earth and Jemima alone or you'll be sorry." Kate told the alien firmly, eyes flashing dangerously. Desmondaio gave her a twisted smile and chuckled.

"Foolish humans, you will never know when you're beaten."

"We're a stubborn race you should know that by now-OW!" Jemima bellowed from her prison and Desmondaio called.

"Save your breath! Not long before all you will be able to achieve is that." Brigadier growled at the alien, Poppy doing the same when Sky snapped.

"Why can't you just leave her alone?! All her life all she's ever done is try her best and try to make others happy, that's all she's ever done and you want to kill on the orders of someone who doesn't even know her!" Desmondaio flicked his wrist, freeing his hand from his shadowy robes, before showing them his palm. A great blue scar was visible against his snow white skin and his voice rasped when he explained.

"Her father is my master. I must obey my master, he poisoned my planet's water and destroyed nearly all of my people. He injected some of the poisoned water into our blood, it attacks our bodies every second of every minute of every day. The only cure for it is for the life essence of one of my master's people to be absorbed into our blood. Your friend is the last of their kind, her life must be sacrificed to save those of my remaining people." The humans almost felt sorry for him, almost pitied him for his plight and his choice. Then, from the basement. a strangled scream like sob echoed throughout the building. Unit snapped to arms, all focused on Desmondaio while Sarah Jane and her gang made sure Luke and Petronella Osgood snuck down to the basement unnoticed.

"I'm sorry to hear about that, Desmondaio, but she is as entitled to a long and happy life as you and your people are." Kate informed the alien as Luke and Petronella got down the steps.

"Hey you, hold on." Petronella told the young woman as they darted quietly into the room.

"Trust me, I'll hang about for a little while yet." Jemima joked hoarsely, struggling to raise her head, with each suck of the machine, Jemima jolted so violently that the arm in her abdomen was having difficulty remaining in place. The open wound it created was oozing bright red bloody at a steady place, making it all the harder for Jemima to breathe and stay awake.

"Hurry Osgood, we can't tell how much time we've got till Desmondaio realises we're down here." Luke told the scientist as she tapped into the system. Jemima clenched her fists and bit her lip as another scream threatened to be snatched from her throat.

"Try to relax, Lyric." Osgood told her, frantically trying to override the security defences and get into the operating system.

"Oh you try relaxing when your soul is being sucked from you, then try telling me to relax." Jemima told the scientist breathlessly, already feeling the effect of her energy being drained from her. 

"Come on, Jem, hold on for a little longer." Luke told her encouragingly as he set about helping the be-specked brunette. Jemima nodded, her whole body beginning to slump. Then they heard gunshots and screams, Jemima's breathing escalated as she managed to swing her head towards the stairs.

"Oh god...! Who's out there? Guys...Who's...o...Out there...?" She asked breathlessly and Osgood worked faster, they were losing her and quickly.

"The whole gang from when we rescued Kayla. She's safe by the way, Sam took her home then came back to help us get you." The brunette informed, her before she felt her chest tightening. Jemima recognised the telltale wheezing and mumbled.

"Inhaler..." Osgood took a quick puff of her in haler before inputting one last sequence and the security protocols of the machine were down. Together, she and Luke worked as fast as they humanly could to crack the system as more screams and gunshots came from the top of the stairs. "Mm..." Jemima tried to form a word, but her wound was leaking faster and she felt tired. So very very tired.

"Stay awake, Jem, come on you've got to stay awake." Luke told her desperately, hands darting about alongside bow tie wearing Osgood's.

"But..." Jemima licked her pale dry lips as she struggled to keep her eyes open, "Tired...So...So tired..." Her soft pain filled chocolate orbs slid shut and her body slowly slumped in it's restraints.

"She's only got two percent of her energy left, come on...come on!" Osgood commented as she tried her hardest then, just as Luke entered one last bit of code, the whirling of the machine halted and on a monitor connected to it flashed an aborted message.

The science-y pair hurried over to the machine and managed to unlock Jemima from her restraints, her body slumping against Luke and taking the metal arm with it. There was a small amount of sparks, some of which singed Luke's sleeve as he caught Jemima, as the arm came away from the machine. Its hand was still lodged in Jemima's abdomen firmly, and neither of them were willing to pull it out in case it was attached to something important. Luke lent in, pressing his ear to her chest. He couldn't hear her heart beating. Pulling away quickly he shook his head and felt for a pulse.

"No...No, no, no, come on Jem don't do this." He told her as Osgood removed her coat and pressed it to the bleeding wound, no reaction came from the bleeding woman but the bleeding was stemmed.

"Lyric, if you can hear me, try to breathe." Osgood told her as more gunshots, shouting, screaming and barking came from above. Jemima was still, her chest wasn't rising nor falling. She was gone...


	13. Chapter 13

Luke and Osgood looked at one another, the younger of the pair not daring to believe it, as the fight above raged on. Clyde, Rani, Sarah Jane and Sky were taking cover as Unit took a bashing, Gordy trying to get close enough to Desmondaio to tackle him while Kate was with the other Osgood, trying to find some way of taking Desmondaio down with the blonde gave cover fire with a pistol. Much to her chagrin she would gladly add.

"Where's Luke?!" Sky yelled to her mother above the gun fire and cries of pain from the Unit chaps.

"Still with the other Osgood and Lyric!" Rani shouted back before risking a peek round their shelter. Gordy noticed her and threw a pistol over to her along the ground. She looked at him as if he'd gone completely insane, she didn't know how to use a pistol! None of them did to her knowledge.

"No he's not." Clyde stated when he peeking round the shelter, eyes resting on Luke as he came up with stairs with Osgood. Both were dotted with blood.

"Cease fire!" Sam barked and the shooting stopped Desmondaio smirked when he noticed the blood on Luke and Osgood's hands.

"You were too late." He stated simply and Luke felt a hot livid bile rising in his throat.

"We stopped the machine, you didn't get all of her energy, she bled out because of that barbaric thing you used to extract it." Petronella informed him, trying to keep calm and together. "We couldn't stop the bleeding..." She admitted softly and Luke spat out.

"She told me how she met you, when you were children and how she had healed your ankle. How she hid you from people looking for what had fallen out the sky. And this is how you repay her kindness for healing and protecting you. You kill her and all you can do is smirk and gloat about her death saving your own skin." The venom in his words was unlike anything his friends and family had ever heard, it didn't sound like the Luke they knew and loved. 

Desmondaio stared at the human boy for a long moment before rasping.

"She died to save my race, she would have been humbled with such an honour-"

"She's dead because you didn't think to ask her to heal your people rather than die to save them. She had three little girls who needed her to love and be a role model for them, she had us her team her friends who still need her to stop us giving up when everything looked dark!" Luke interrupted the dark cloaked alien, his emotions going into over drive as he took a step or two forward, "She was beginning to mend the bridges between herself, her mother and her brother! She was going to have puppies running around her garden, she was starting a new job next week...She had so much ahead of her, so many who need her, and you took her away from it all when there could have been another way-"

"Stupid human!" Desmondaio bellowed shooting a bolt of energy straight into Luke's stomach, knocking him off his feet. Petronella knelt by him and helped him sit up. "You do not understand do you? One life in exchange for so many is a sacrifice worth making! She meant nothing to her father the moment she was born, he wanted her dead so he would not die alone, her energy to save my people is only an added gain!"

"She meant everything to me! She meant so much to most of us here! And to so many no longer with us!" Luke snapped back and Gordy snapped.

"She was my sister, yes we had never gotten on but I always knew that when it came down to it we'd stick by each other!" 

"She was our friend, she made us laugh till out sides hurt, comforted us when we were upset, believed in us and gave us hope when it all seemed dark." Sarah Jane stated fiercely, tears lining the rims of her eyes very much like Rani and Clyde.

"She was my ex-girlfriend but she was the only one who dumped me and we remained on good terms. She was the only who could take me down for more than half of the rubbish I did." Josh snarled grimly, joining the declaration of meaning.

"She was the big sister I'll never have, from the moment I saw her we just clicked. She understood me better than anyone, and I understood her. Why she always hoped, why she always fought, why she was always so protective of us and reckless with herself." Sky choked out, trying not to cry, "She loved us, and we loved her and she wanted us safe just like we wanted her safe." Sky confessed and Kate blinked, letting the grief and anger fill her as the tears in her eyes began to fall.

"She was my daughter," She began, trying to remain strong and not cry in front of her subordinates who were equally moved by what each person was saying, "My little girl, one of my babies...I never told her how much I love her, how proud I am of who she is and what she's become." Kate swallowed the lump forming in her throat as she paused to take a calming breath, "I never told her because I always thought she knew, and I was wrong. So very very wrong, she was more than I ever deserved in a daughter and I never told her. I'll never be able to tell her how sorry I am for never being there for her, for never telling her all those things...For not being a better mother to her." She admitted and Desmondaio looked to each person in turn before chuckling darkly.

"Why are you laughing?" Sam asked him, disgusted that their enemy found their pain amusing. 

"Humans, your emotions make you weak. The young one was too attuned to her emotions, it made her willing to do almost anything to protect her beloved planet. It's pathetic, your emotions and declaration cannot bring her back from beyond the grave and now I have her energy. My people shall be saved and our home recreated." Desmondaio explained with a humourless chuckle as he snapped his fingers and a vial flew from the basement into his outstretched hand. "And Earth shall be our new home, no one, not Unit or you passive defenders of Earth, can stop me." The ground quaked as Desmondaio cackled, people lost their balance, the foundations of buildings trembled and some of the depot crumbled.

"Take cover!" Kate ordered the group as more of the place began to fall apart.

"Nothing can stop us! Nothing!" Desmondaio cackled, looking to the vial in his hands and preparing to inject himself with some of the energy when a voice rasped.

"Wanna bet, buddy?" Heads snapped towards the steps and stood, hand pressed against the whole in her abdomen, muddied and bloodied was Jemima Lethbridge-Stewart.

"Lyric!" Sky cheered with a delighted yet tearful grin.

"You're alive?!" Bonnie cried in confusion, she had seen her sister's memory of Jemima's death how the hell was she there?!

"Impossible!" Desmondaio snapped and Jemima gulped down a breath before saying.

"Yep, I'm alive and kicking and no, Desmondaio, nothing is ever impossible. Not when I'm involved anyway." Rani and Sarah Jane gave small breathless laughs of delighted shock while her mother didn't dare believe it, she wouldn't until she could hold Jemima in her arms and see if she was real. Clyde was staring at the massive blood stain on her blouse, watching it growing larger, while Josh was smiling slightly in pride. She was still as stubborn as ever. "And by the way," Jemima added to the alien, "You've done the one thing no one should ever do."

"And what is that, young one?"

"Piss me off." Jemima glowered at the alien as she cracked her knuckles and walked forward till she was stood a meter in front of him, hands raised in a fighting stance. Desmondaio cackled manically, like a train scraping along its tracks, and held up the vial of her energy.

"You wouldn't dare, not when I have your life essence in my hand." He told her and she quipped.

"Not all of it. You have ninety-eight percent of my soul in your hand. Unfortunately for you the two percent I've still got in me comes from my mother and grandfather. And if you weren't afraid before, you better be now." Desmondaio chuckled before gasping when Jemima aimed straight for his head with two kicks in quick succession.

"Oh boy, he's in trouble." Josh stated and Gordy whistled, impressed. Jemima aimed another kick at Desmondaio's head only for her ankle to be grabbed and she flipped. Jemima angled herself, twisting her body painfully, so she landed on her dominant foot and used the force of her other to smack Desmondaio straight in the head with her foot. The alien stumbled backwards as Jemima got her balance again and glared at him. Desmondaio was thoroughly surprised by the attack but quickly recovered and fired a bolt of energy at her, aimed straight at her wound. Jemima covered the wound with her arms and let them take the brunt of the bolt, cringing massively and staggering backwards. Someone caught her and she opened her eyes to see who and gave a breathless chuckle.

"Oh thank god, you're a sight for sore eyes." Gordy winked at his sister before setting her right and giving her his jacket.

"Tie this over your wound, stop anything getting into it." Jemima shook her head and ripped the sleeves off her blouse, tying them together and tying that round her abdomen securely. Then she turned back to Desmondaio who was trying to inject himself again, Jemima flexed her fingers gently and the vial rattled.

"Desmondaio, I should probably warn you," Jemima told him as she moved closer, the alien sent another bolt of his own energy at her, hitting her straight in the chest and her heart stopped momentarily before she hit herself in the chest. It began to beat again when she noticed the slight glow of her skin and grimaced. "The energy in that vial is still linked to me. While I'm still alive, you can't inject yourself without it killing you. You know that don't you?" She asked and Desmondaio growled.

"Then I'll have to make right on my promise."

"So will I." Jemima retorted before ducking and diving straight at Desmondaio, tackling him to the ground and pinning him.

"Go on Lyric!" Sky cheered her friend on as Jemima struggled to keep Desmondaio down, she noticed then that the blue scar on his hand was spreading, nearly at his skull.

"Listen to me...Listen to me Desmondaio!" She snapped at him and he stopped struggling when she applied pressure to his stomach with her knee. "I know you're dying, I know you're trying to save your race but you can't, just as I can't stop my father dying. Whatever did this to you, it's too late. In a few minutes it'll reach your brain and you'll be in unbearable agony." She explained to him, "Then you'll wish you had died sooner," She took in a trembling breath, tears forming in her eyes as she saw the child like fear in his eyes. "Give me my life essence back and let me help you. I know the boy I met all those years ago is still in there, let me help him. Please." She pleaded with him, the adrenaline in her veins beginning to fade and she was starting to feel the effects of the drainage and her wound. 

"You're lying, you're lying this will save my people!" Desmondaio protested, completely in denial.

"And my people will die so yours will have a new home where they won't have to suffer, is that it?!" Jemima asked him beseechingly. "Suffering will only continue because they won't know how to survive on Earth, Desmondaio! You save your race only for them to die on their new planet after wiping out an entire race! Is that what you want for your people?" She asked him and Desmondaio roared.

"YOU ARE A LIAR!" He released a wave of his own energy that sent Jemima flying, skidding across the ground Giving her more cuts and grazes. She struggled to breathe for a moment, the force of the wind being knocked from her was not something she had experienced before. The force had caused the deport to quake, bricks and mortar collapsing close to different members of the group.

"I'm not and you know it!" She groaned, shakily rolling onto her side. Luke ran to her side and helped her sit up. "Hey you." She smiled slightly at him and he smiled a little in return.

"Hello you." He told her before wrapping one of her arms round his neck and helping her stand. She looked to Desmondaio and gave him an imploring look.

"Please, Desmondaio, you know-deep down you know-I'm right and I know you don't want that to happen. Not when your people have suffered enough." She slipped her arm from round Luke's shoulders, giving him a reassuring smile when he went to protest, and slowly walked towards Desmondaio. When she was in front of him, she reached up with tender fingers and touched the centre of his chest. He didn't move, just stared down at her and she saw the little boy from before. So frightened, so lost, so  _tired_. "Please?" The young woman whispered moving her fingers along his arm till she reached the hand holding the vial. She managed to slip it from his hand and nodded slightly to him. 

What happened next, happened so quickly that not everyone registered it until it was over. Jemima began to turn and walk away with the vial in hand only for Sam to snap.  
  
"Lyric behind you!" Jemima turned back quickly to see Desmondaio launching at her with a dagger made from his own energy in his hand. She caught his wrist and shoved it away, but the force made the pair collide with the ground. Jemima managed to kick Desmondaio off her before couldn't move, her injury prevented her from doing so. 

"Mima!" Gordy snapped and threw her his pistol and without even thinking, Jemima knocked the safety, aimed for Desmondaio who went for the dagger then for her, and fired. The bullet hit him straight in the chest, through the heart. Right where Jemima had touched moments before hand. Time seemed to slow, the horror of what she had done sank into Jemima and her features responded accordingly as Desmondaio stared straight from her down to his chest. A single bead of bright blue blood trickled from the bullet hole, and a tear dripped from Desmondaio's eye before he slumped on his front, face continuing to stare blankly at Jemima. He was dead. And they were safe. 

Jemima stared, horrified, at the pistol in her hand before she shuddered and dropped it, shuffling away from it as tears blurred her vision. She had just killed someone, she had physically pulled the trigger and ended a doomed life. She felt arms wrap round her, turning her away, and she pressed her face against Luke's shirt, clinging to him desperately. She couldn't speak, she was in too much pain and too horrified at what she had done. She didn't hear the commotion that ensued afterwards, her mother giving orders, her friends gathering round her and Luke, the Osgoods and other Unit chaps checking each other's wounds. Jemima didn't register anything until she felt Luke let go.

She looked up at him, trembling and very much in shock, and felt him wipe her cheeks before helping her to her feet. Her legs wouldn't support her though, they wobbled too much to take her weight. Luke and Rani supported her, helping her walk towards the Unit truck Sam had just brought round.

"Come on, lay her down flat on the bench."

"Wait," She choked, looking round realising she couldn't hear any whining or barking. "Where's Brig and Pops?" She asked, looking round frantically.

"We don't know, Lyric, but lets get you sorted out first-"

"No, not until I know they're alright. Brig?! Poppy!? Damn!" Jemima cringed when she stretched too much and pulled her wound, she wrapped the arm formally round Rani's shoulders.

"Found them!" Josh called and Poppy emerged, coat covered in brick dust. But Brigadier didn't emerge. Poppy bounded over to her mistress and tugged on her torn trouser leg, tugging her towards Josh and a pile of debris. Jemima nodded to Luke and he helped her over to the pile, easing her to the ground and they, with Josh's help, cleared the Debris to reveal a whimpering Brigadier. 

"Brig...!" Jemima choked out, gently easing his head into her lap, "No...Not you, old boy, not you..." She whispered in denial watching as Brigadier's large soft brown eyes stared up at her, pained and sorrowful. Jemima bit her lip hard, almost breaking the skin, before saying to Luke. "Break the vial." He looked confused and Jemima took a deep breath before explaining. "If you break the vial, my energy will return to me and I can help Brig and the others, please Luke." Luke didn't need telling, he placed the vial on the ground, snatched up a broken piece of brick and slammed it down on the vial, smashing it completely. 

The lilac energy spiralled upwards into the sky, shooting about like fireworks in broad daylight before colliding and twisting towards Jemima gracefully, weaving round her injuries like bandages before fading into her skin. She felt so much better, the pain was receding and she felt stronger than ever.

"Wow what a light show." Josh whistled, impressed, before noticing the swirl birthmark Jemima always kept hidden, it was glowing. Jemima shakily raised her hand to her mouth and released a gentle breath, her palm glowing brightly at the contact before she turned to Brig and whispered.

"It's alright, Brig, it won't hurt anymore soon." Then, with the gentility she didn't often show, Jemima ran her glowing appendage the length of his body, from the tip of his nose to the point of his tail along his spine. The energy moved through every part of the Labradors' body, wrapping round every injury and mending the damage caused by the debris. But whether or not he would be strong enough to live, Jemima wasn't sure.

"Please...Please work." Jemima whispered, crossing her fingers over Brig's neck, her thumb making gentile passes over the side of his head. The other's watched it happen, all with baited breath, waiting for something to happen. Brigadier closed his eyes and exhaled softly and Jemima shook her head, her lip trembling before she bent over him, head resting on his body as her arms cradled his head.

Small sobs shook her, her shoulders jolting a little as Poppy whined and nudged her mate. When he wouldn't stir she sat back and gave a heart broken howl as Luke rubbed Jemima's back, head bowed in grief. Sky shook her head, hands clasping over her mouth while Rani found comfort in Clyde's arms, Sarah Jane hugged her daughter, tears rimming her own eyes. They were all rather fond of the two dogs, loved them like their own. Kate and Gordy bowed their heads, the Osgood sisters on either side of the pair, Petronella near tears while Bonnie just looked heart broken. 

Then there was a distinct canine snort and Jemima pulled back looking down in shock as Brigadier opened his eyes and rolled so he could get to his paws. "Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart you-" Jemima began to cry in outrage before Brigadier pounced on her, licking away her tears and cleaning her ears. Jemima squealed and giggled at the sensation until Poppy barked and Brigadier halted, climbing off his mistress to nuzzle his mate in greeting.

"Oh you are horrid sometimes, Brig, we thought you were dead." Luke told the Labrador who, after licking his mate gently, tottered over to the human boy and hit him in the stomach with his head, nudging him towards Jemima. Luke gave him a small fuss before getting up, offering Jemima a hand up. She smiled widely and accepted, being swept to her feet in one motion then off her feet in another. Luke had his arms round her waist, hugging her to him tightly with her feet curled up behind her. 

"Oi lovebirds!" Luke quickly dropped Jemima back on her feet, both looking innocent and happy.

"Who said anything about us being lovebirds, Gordy?" Jemima asked her brother sweetly and Rani and Sky looked at each other before chorusing.

"You kissed him before you got Kayla back!" 

"So?" Luke asked them, sharing a small smirk with Jemima as she untied her make shift bandage. No wound was under the sleeves, just a pale scar which was soon covered by Sky when she flung her arms round her friend, both stumbling backwards a little.

"Never, ever, ever scare us like that again! I-We thought you were dead! A-a-and then you came back and fought with Desmondaio a-a-and-"

"Sky, sunshine, take it easy. You'll give yourself a panic attack if you aren't careful." Jemima warned the young woman, rubbing her back in soothing circles, "And I know, I was dead. It was thanks to Osgood and Luke that I managed to come back, they saved enough of my energy so I could recall my consciousness. I owe them my life." Jemima looked to the bow tie wearing Osgood then to Luke, gently slipping a hand into one of his own. Sky sniffed and pulled away before saying.

"Still, never scare us like that again. Promise?" Jemima smiled down at her young friend and pushed her fringe from her eyes.

"I won't just promise, sweetheart, I'll make sure I don't. I'm not going to be chasing aliens anymore, this adventure with Desmondaio has shown me I've got too much to lose to keep doing this. But I'll still be around to make sure you and the others don't give up, especially when times get rough." She told the group and accepted hugs from Rani and Clyde, the latter asking.

"Can I still make blonde bombshell jokes?"

"No." Jemima chuckled into his shoulder before Sarah Jane came over and put her hands on Jemima's shoulders.

"I hope you know, you won't stop being our friend just because you've stopped saving the Earth with us." Sarah Jane told her and Jemima gave her a crooked smile.

"I'll still help out, just passively and not running around all the time. Just give me a ring and I'll do what I can, you guys are my friends, my best friends. I'd never leave you, not now not ever." 

"You've gone soft." Josh stated with a smirk as he folded his arms, moving closer.

"Better to be soft and emotive, than hard and unfeeling." Jemima shot back and Clyde asked.

"Who said that quote?"

"I did, came up with it when Lydia first let me hold Victoria. She had said I'd gone soft the moment I'd laid eyes on the baby." Jemima informed him before Brigadier and Poppy pawed at her exposed legs. "Alright, alright. We're going home in a minute." She chuckled before Sarah Jane hugged her and Jemima stuck her tongue out at her brother when he he grinned and rolled his eyes at her. 

"You're in for a hell of a ride with this one, Luke, stubborn as a mule." Gordy told the young man and Jemima gave a cry of mock outrage when Sarah Jane released her.

"You're one to talk, my dear brother." Jemima shot back, marching over to him and jabbing him in the gut gently. Gordy ruffled her hair gently, "Who was the one who was so adamant about joining the army? You wouldn't listen to anyone who tried to stop you." Jemima asked and her brother wrapped an arm round her giving her a light squeeze and a brotherly kiss to the crown.

"Just how you were so adamant about having nothing to do with the military despite you being a better shot than me." Jemima winced at his words, her eyes travelling to the dead body just over her shoulder. "Hey, come on. You stopped the bad guy, he would have killed the entire human race if you hadn't." Gordy told her comfortingly and Jemima nodded sullenly.

"I just wish there had been another way, a better way." She admitted before going over to the body and rolling him onto his back, 

"Jemima-" Kate began but stopped when she saw Jemima closing Desmondaio's eyes and folding his arms one over the other. It was a sign of remorse by his shooter, and oh how Jemima regretted how things had ended. She meant it, she wished there had been better way. Her hand resting over his right hand, the one she had touched minutes before when retrieving the vial, and her thumb brushed his knuckles ever so gently until she felt an arm wrap round her shoulders. She looked to her left and smiled slightly at the sight of her mother crouching beside her. "We'll sort out arrangements for his body to be-" Kate was cut off by Desmondaio glowing blue and slowly fading and Jemima's hand fell straight through him.

"What just happened?" Bonnie asked and Jemima stated simply.

"He's gone home. When those of his kind die, their bodies return to the soil of their home planet. Their life essences go to the stars, helping to create new ones. He deserved to go home." Kate nodded and they got up before Jemima checked her wrist for the time only to find her watch missing, she checked her pockets it wasn't in any of them.

"Oh man!" She groaned, "He's nicked me watch! Nan gave me that for my birthday."

"This watch?" Petronella asked, picking up one from the dirt.

"Yep!" Jemima smiled and caught it when the Osgood passed it to her. It was three o'clock in the afternoon and then her phone rang. 

"You really need to change your ringtone." Rani told her and Jemima raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah never happening." Jemima told her before checking who was calling her and answering it. "Hello? Mr Gresham! Hello sir, what can I do for you?" She asked nervously, her free hand curling and uncurling rhythmically round the watch in her grasp until Kate took her hand and squeezed it encouragingly. "Oh, that's terrible, sir. Yes of course I understand. Thank you, and to you sir." Jemima said understandingly before putting her phone away when the call ended.

"What's up?" Josh asked and Jemima asked the group.

"Is there something about me that just says job jinx? The company I just got a job with has gone bust and they are axing jobs. Guess who was the first to go." Kate squeezed her hand and said.

"There's always next time, sweetheart." Jemima nodded simply before Sky asked.

"Why don't you do what you did before? You know when you were in uni?"

"Being a waitress in a pub isn't going to be enough to pay my rent, vet bills and other bills." Jemima told the teen who shook her head and clarified.

"No I meant the other one, the one you used to say about strangling your boss."

"Oh my DJing? Yeah, I guess I could do that again. Just preferably not in a bar with an insufferable misogynist for a boss." Jemima conceded grimly and Luke smiled slightly at the memory of the day she had quit.

"Still think you should have let me punch him one." Luke told her and she gave him a flat look.

"No, then you would have been done for assault. I only didn't get charged because it was self defence and there was evidence supporting my accusations." Jemima reminded him, causing her mother and brother to give her looks of disbelief. "Yeah not one of my best days." Jemima admitted, a tad sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. 

"Hopefully you'll have better days in future." Petronella informed her brightly and Jemima put out her hand to the scientist saying.

"I hope you're right, Miss Osgood. In the end, all that matters is that hope grows and bares fruit."The scientist shook her hand, followed by her twin before Poppy barked impatiently and Jemima chuckled. "Alright, alright. Come on, off we go." She patted her thigh lightly as she began to leave the premises, looking a state but she didn't care.

"Want a lift?" Luke called after her and she smiled over her shoulder at him, still walking.

"I want to run home, get changed and have a bloody cup of tea." She called and Kate grinned, shaking her head after her daughter with a fond chuckle.

"So I don't even get a hug?" She called and Jemima smiled, turning round and walking backwards.

"Maybe when you're off duty, Ma'am." She gave a small salute and Kate smiled after her. At least they were on the road to recovery, and that was enough for now...


	14. Epilogue

Just want to say thank you to everyone who's read this story for reading it and for putting up with my appalling writing. 

* * *

Christmas Day 2016, Jemima was sprawled out spread eagle on her living room floor with six Rough Collie Labrador mix puppies using her as a bed. She had fallen asleep on the sofa the night before and had fallen off at some point apparently. Her mouth was open, drool from the corner of her lips to the middle of her cheek was dry, hair a complete mess with tinsel and glitter in tangled heaps. She looked a jolly state. 

Poppy and Brigadier watched over her from their little bed in the gap under the stairs, it was where their mistress had moved them to closer to the due date when Poppy was pregnant. Jemima had gotten a job as an IT consultant and was beginning to pay off her debts, she still helped save the world with Sarah Jane and the gang when she could, and shared frequent letters with her brother since he was back in Afghanistan. She was slowly patching things up with her mother, both finding common ground and learning to agree to disagree on other subjects, but each step felt like so much progress between the two of them. It felt wonderful on both sides.

Just as Brigadier got up to check on his mistress and pups with nearer eyes, the door bell rang but his mistress merely continued to snore softly, a new trail of drool leaking from her parted lips. Brigadier snorted and went to open the door, Jemima had taught him to press a button to unlock the door then tug a cord to open it when he was a pup-much like Poppy-and put his training to good use when his mistress was indisposed. At the door stood a large group, the Bannerman Road gang, Jemima's god-family, Josh Carter, both Osgoods and Jemima's mother and brother. 

"Hello Brig-" Brigadier growled warningly and snorted, looking to the living room then back at the group. Josh was silenced before the group entered and peered into the living room, and quietly awed at the sight. 

"Maybe we should go?" Rani whispered and Darren suggested in a whisper.

"She said to come round any time, perhaps she just hasn't woken up from last night?" 

"Pass me your coats, we'll wake her in a minute." Gordy croaked quietly, a small cold being his early Christmas present from his brigade. Coats and outdoor things were removed, as well as shoes and the group hid Gordy from sight, Jemima didn't know he was coming home for Christmas, before Brigadier nudged his pups awake. Stretching and yawning, sparking warm grins and smiles from the audience, their movements sparked life in their owner. Jemima ceased to snore and sniffed, soon coughing slightly and saying with a bunged up voice.

"Settle down you six, some of us are still trying to recover..." Then one pup, a nearly pure black boy with a beige patch over one eye and a white chest, sat on her chest and licked her chin. His siblings soon followed suit and Jemima chuckled softly raising her hands and defending her face from their little wet noses and tongues. "Alright, I'm getting up-Holy-!" Jemima erupted into a coughing fit as she exclamation of shock included a sharp intake of breath. She sat up slowly and Luke knelt beside her, rubbing her back gently until she stopped.

"Merry Christmas, Auntie?" Victoria asked sheepishly and Jemima gave a fake glare at her eldest goddaughter.

"Humbug-Oh no!" Jemima laughed slightly when her goddaughters gave cries of outrage and dog pilled her, trying to get her to take it back with tickles and giggles of their own. Jemima hugged the trio, squeezing them tightly, before conceding. "Alright, alright. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, happy you three?" She asked, still bunged up but very cheerful.

"Auntie you have a cold!" Kayla cried, dismayed, but Jemima shook her head.

"It's just the change of season not agreeing with me, now, can I say hello to everyone else. Then I'll put the kettle on." 

"Already on it!" Clyde called from the kitchen and Jemima rolled her eyes affectionately with a grin.

"Thank you, Clyde." She called, getting up and accepting hugs from Sky, Sarah Jane, and Rani before folding her arms, standing right in front of Darren. "Ok, what's this I hear about no Christmas tree?" She asked him and his daughters giggled from behind her. Darren looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his head.

"First rule of parenting, never tell your kids things you don't want repeated." Kate chuckled and Jemima nodded in agreement.

"I haven't had time to get one and seeing as we're spending the day here I thought it wouldn't matter." He looked behind the group and smiled slightly. "See you've already decorated yours."

"All but the star, and I've still got to make some paper chains for the ceiling." Jemima reported proudly, hands resting on her hips and the tinsel in her hair catching the light from the window.

"You ever decorated yourself, look at you, glitter and tinsel everywhere." Sarah Jane chuckled at her young friend who blushed in embarrassment before one of the pups jumped onto the sofa and pawed at her hand. Jemima chuckled and picked it up, cuddling him gently before replying.

"You know me, Sarah Jane, gotta through myself into things to get the best results." She joked before Luke got up and gently scratched the pup in her arms behind the ear.

"Makes you sparkle in the right light." He told her and she smiled up at him softly.

"Thank you for being sweet, and for rubbing my back earlier it helped a lot." She told him and he shrugged.

"What are boyfriends for?"

"You did ask her out! I was right, Clyde you owe me a tenner!" Sky cried into the kitchen and the couple shared fond smiles, before resting their foreheads together. 

"Jeez, it's enough to make you want to vomit." Josh groused only to be smacked in the chest by Bonnie.

"Just because she dumped you." She shot back and Jemima shifted the puppy in her arms to make space to hug the Osgoods. 

"Good Christmas so far, Lyric?" Petronella asked and Jemima nodded gesturing the group to find a seat but no one budged.

"Oh yeah, um... didn't get drunk at the office Christmas party, pups are doing well in terms of toilet training and haven't chewed up a single carpet yet... Oh! I got a letter from Gordy wishing us the best too." She said putting the pup down and ushering the girls onto the sofa.

"So you got my letter then?" Gordy asked and the group moved to reveal the soldier.

"Gordy!" Jemima grinned and hugged her brother tightly. "You said you weren't coming home! You're horrible." She told him, her grin still in place.

"Ah, you're only sore because Mum knew and you didn't." 

"Don't drag me into this." Kate chuckled before Jemima let her brother go when Poppy barked urgently.

"What's it, Pops?" Poppy snorted and headed into the kitchen before they heard a clatter and Jemima hurried in to find one of the pups trying to paw open the doggy door. "Oh my goodness, Juno it's the doggy door it's not going to hurt you." She told the pup who instead turned and bounded into the bed with her mother. Jemima shook her head fondly at the pup before looking to her friends. "Pup's as scatty as I am and she's only a month old." She joked and Clyde smirked.

"That explains so much."

"Oi!" 

"Season of good will!" Clyde recited quickly, raising his arms to protect himself when Jemima laughed and went to pinch his side. The younger blonde shook her head at her friend before asking.

"What's everyone having? Tea, coffee or hot chocolate with the whole works?" Out of all of them, the only one to say anything other than hot chocolate with all the works was Darren who opted for coffee instead. 

"I'll give you a hand." Kate told her daughter, joining her in the rather messy kitchen. "Why were you passed out on the floor?" Kate asked as they set to work, getting mugs and ingredients together.

"Originally I was on the sofa, them I fell off in the night I suppose. I was doing the decorating and had just finished hiding the presents." Jemima admitted and Kate gave her a soft smile.

"You work too hard." 

"Pot calling the kettle black, Mother." Jemima shot back with a worn smile, getting one in return.

"Auntie!"

"Yes, my lovely?" 

"Felix and Gizmo are using Uncle Luke as a bed!" Kayla giggled and Jemima had to stop herself erupting into giggles when Kate called.

"Take a picture of it, sweetheart, and get your daddy to put it on Facebook."

"Jem! Help! I'm being smothered by cuteness!" Luke called and Jemima erupted in full on laughter, snorting and arms wrapped round her stomach. Kate grinned at the sight and sounds, she'd never heard her daughter laugh out loud like that. She usually hid her laughter behind her hands, so it was muffled and hidden, but at that moment Kate took it to commit it to memory just in case she never heard it again. Jemima soon had her hands over her mouth to quieten herself down and shook her head.

"You're worse than I am with them." She told her mother who shrugged in a 'what can I do?' manner before Gordy came in with Victoria on his back and Sky by his side. "Should I even ask?" Jemima asked the trio and Sky and Gordy shook their heads, Victoria piping up.

"Auntie can we go play in the snow?" Jemima gave the little girl a small stern frown as she folded her arms. "Please?"

"Please?" Sky piped up.

"Pretty please?" Gordy asked and Kate shook her head at the trio. Jemima's stern look increased slightly and said.

"Not until you've opened your presents, and we can't let the puppies outside yet, they haven't been vaccinated yet."

"Presents?!" The two girls chorused and Gordy chuckled, retorting.

"Yes Mother-"

"I am not Mum!" Jemima cried in outrage and Kate raised her eyebrows at her children.

"Sorry, still here." She stated and Jemima winced apologetically. Gordy smiled cheekily at their mother before hoisting Victoria up on his back a little more, saying.

"Come on Viki, we better tell the others." Victoria nodded excitedly and Gordy carried her back into the living room, making trotting noises along the way. Kate smiled and looked at her daughter who sighed almost silently, a sadness tinging her eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"She's nine years old, she can't remember anything she did when Desmondaio had possessed her but she remembers seeing me in the Unit medical bay. She and Kayla both told me how frightened they were of losing me and I realised that I've lived with that fear nearly my entire life." Jemima explained before looking to her mother, "Granddad, you, Gordy then my friends when I found out they were fighting and helping aliens. But she doesn't need to be afraid anymore, none of them do and I feel so much lighter knowing that they won't wake up one day and find me gone. But I still worry about you and Gordy, heck I still worried about Granddad when he was a maths teacher." Kate nodded and wrapped an arm round her shoulders, pressing a soft kiss to her temple as the kettle whistled.

"I can't make any promises, neither can Gordy-"

"I don't want you to, Mum, I won't ask you to promise anything except that you give me a ring sometimes. I just wanna know you're ok and not lying in a ditch somewhere-"

"Jemima Fiona Lethbridge-Stewart," Kate whispered soothingly, grasping her arms gently to make sure Jemima was looking her in the eye. "Put that thought out of your head right now. I promise I'll do more than that, I'm not going to shut you out when I've only just got you back. Now, lets get these hot chocolates made." Jemima nodded and accepted the small squeeze her mother gave her.

"Right, in coming hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate sprinkles!" Jemima announced bringing in four mugs on a tray.

"Hallelujah!" Darren cheered and Jemima stepped over feet, legs and puppies and handed a hot chocolate to Sky, Victoria, Kayla and Sarah Jane. Kate followed and the Osgoods accepted one each, followed by Rani and Clyde.

"I'll get the others," Luke volunteered and Jemima shook her head and stepped quickly into her kitchen.

"You're a guest, I don't like letting guests doing what a host should. It's the only bit of tradition I agree with."

"Along with the groom not seeing the bride the night before the wedding!"

"Oh you are so lucky it's Christmas, Josh, or I'd sling you out that front door faster than a hummingbird can beat it's wings!" Jemima shot back before bringing in the remaining mugs.

"It's fine, I should be going now anyway." Josh told her and she appeared disheartened.

"I was only joking you know."

"I know, but I only came by to see how you were and wish you a Merry Christmas." Josh told her and Jemima smirked.

"Work or a girl?"

"None of your business, Mister Mime." Josh shot back, turning his colour up and heading for the door.

"Josh has got a girlfriend." Jemima sang to the retreating soldier.

"Jemima's got a boyfriend!" Josh retaliated swiftly and a smug look appeared on the younger blonde's face.

"Not denying it!" Jemima cried smugly as Josh bid goodbye to the others and left.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say it was Lyric and Josh who were siblings, not Lyric and Gordy." Rani stated and Gordy, who was sat on the floor with Pippa in his lap and a pup-Duchess by the more tan than black markings-laying across his feet, smirked.

"Oh trust me, Rani, we could be little nightmares to each other if we choose it." Jemima nodded simply as Darren accepted his coffee, Kate her hot chocolate and the young couple their own. They were stood in the doorway, leaning against it's sides, when Sky started giggling, followed by Kayla, Victoria, Rani and Bonnie.

"What?" Luke asked them as Jemima shot them confused looks, Petronella stifled her giggles as Kate hid her smirk, taking a long sip of the scorching hot chocolate. Darren looked and snorted slightly, Jemima tapped him on the shoulder, as he was sat closest to her on the closest sofa, and asked.

"What are you snorting at?" Darren shook his head and Clyde sniggered into his hot chocolate. "If someone doesn't say what you're all laughing at, you won't get your presents." Jemima told them and Sarah Jane chuckled.

"Look up." The couple did and the shade of red Jemima turned was comical. Luke stared gobsmacked at their discovery then slowly looked down at his red faced lover. She chewed her lip nervously, her gaze slowly dropping from their discovery to his warm dark eyes and she cleared her throat slightly before speaking.

"You don't have to..." She made and quick gesture with her hand to make her meaning clear, Luke nodded, swallowing thickly saying.

"Of course, just a stupid plant." Jemima nodded in agreement before Bonnie stated.

"Oh this is painfully brilliant." Her sister elbowed her gently before Jemima pointed out.

"But they say if you don't then both people get bad luck for ten years." Luke nodded and said.

"Yes and with all the hard work you've done to get your job, and me to get mine, we can't afford bad luck." Jemima shook her head and cleared her throat once more, the colour in her cheeks growing deeper still. 

"And it is tradition and Christmas." Luke nodded in fairness before Victoria asked the adults in the room.

"Is it always this slow? It doesn't seem it in the films." Kate shook her head and gently ghosted her hand over the young girl's head. She had taken well to Jemima's godchildren and them to her if the way they reacted to seeing her was anything to go by. Each time they saw Kate, they would cry 'Nana Katie!' and run up to the blonde, hugging her waist and legs like they did with Jemima.

"Right." Luke stated nervously and Jemima sighed.

"For god sake!" She held up the tray so their faces were blocked from view and leant up on her tip toes. Luke wrapped his arms round her waist and met her half way, their lips gently brushing before meeting more certainly and softly.

"Oh come on! Talk about anti-climatic." Gordy laughed and Darren took the tray, holding it up for them while Jemima's now free hand wrapped round Luke's shoulder. The warmth he radiated warmed her better than any hot chocolate could and the sparks that erupted between them with each slight movement of their lips grew in ferocity until they heard a clatter and pulled away to see Juno at it again with the locked doggy door.

"Juno!" The couple laughed and the pup looked to them, bounding over to them with an expectant look. Jemima chuckled slightly, one hand covering her mouth only for Luke to move it away and kiss her forehead.

"You have a smashing laugh, never hide it." He told her and she blushed darker, biting her lip shyly as she looked up at him sheepishly. Then there was a flash and Sky cheered.

"I got it!" The couple looked to the teen then at each other before shrugging and Kayla asked.

"Auntie, can I put a Christmas song on?" Jemima nodded earnestly and said.

"Tell you what, you put the music on and I'll light the tree up. Then you can have your presents." Kayla saluted her godmother, much like she had seen the soldiers doing for Kate, before she tried to reach the pile of Christmas CDs on top the stereo. Petronella smiled as the little girl jumped, trying to reach, before the brunette bent down and picked her up, helping her reach as she said.

"You wait till you're older, Kayla, you'll have to lift the little ones up so they can reach too." Kayla beamed at the scientist before Darren remembered something.

"Kayla," The little girl looked up from the CDs she had in her hands, showing Petronella which one she liked the most. "Tell auntie what you did at school before you broke up." Kayla broke into a beaming smile that could have lit the Christmas tree by itself.

"Hold on, sunshine, I'll be out in a sec." Jemima's muffled voice came from round the back of the tree before the lights were on and Jemima emerged looking slightly disorientated. "I'm never putting the plug near the back again." She stated firmly before looking to her goddaughter. "What did you do?"

"I got the highest score in my class in science! I got a certificate for it too!" Jemima beamed and praised her middle goddaughter highly before Victoria confessed.

"I got one for music, Auntie." Jemima praised Victoria highly as well before stating.

"Right, so we'll have Viki becoming a famous performer and Kayla blowing god knows what up when they leave school."

"Oh I don't want to blow anything up, Auntie," Kayla began earnestly, holding the CDs tightly to her chest, "I want to help people like me. I want to help them get better and kick cancer's butt." Petronella gave the young girl a small squeeze and Jemima had a small pride filled smile on her face.

"Kayla Amelia Jemima Rothschild, peace keeper extraordinaire." Luke stated softly and Kayla nodded before Darren asked, brow puckered in puzzlement.

"How did you know her middle names?"

"Jem talks about her goddaughters a lot." Luke informed him and his girlfriend shrugged.

"I'm allowed to be proud of my girls and I'm allowed to talk about their father too." Darren snorted and said.

"Good things I hope."

"Oh you wish." Jemima chuckled at him and Darren jokingly huffed with a frown.

"You're a cow when you want to be."

"Sue me!" Jemima sang as she went to replace the tray in the kitchen then returned with a large bag over her shoulders. "Santa left these with me because he somehow knew you lot would be coming over. So, shall we see who gets to open the first present?" She asked and the little girls cheered, just as Kayla pressed play on the stereo, Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade began playing.

"You'll do your back in one of these days." Darren told her as she put the bag down and bent down to get the first present.

"Oh be quiet, Scrooge, and open your present." She told him, handing him the first present. Looking rather bewildered, Darren tore open the wrappings and chuckled when he saw what is was.

"You are the best sister I could ask for." He told her, giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek. Jemima ruffled his head and shrugged.

"What did you get, Daddy?" Victoria asked from beside Kate, who was absentmindedly playing with the springy curls of the young girl's Afro.

"I got two tickets to go see Arsenal vs Swansea on the fourteenth of January. So guess who's going to be staying with Auntie that night?" The three girls cheered and Jemima shook her head with a chuckle, and proceeded to hand out the other presents, even the Osgoods got one each and that did surprise them.

"Oh Auntie! Thank you! Thank you so much!" 

"Thank you so much, Aunt Jemima." Darren told her sarcastically as Victoria flung her arms round her aunt's neck, her new flute in hand.

"She wanted to learn and you said she could in the new year, so I got her a flute." Jemima shot back with a small smile as Victoria let go and Pippa giggled happily at the new doll she had been given, Kayla beaming brightly at the Beauty and the Beast DVD in her hands. Sky wrapped her new handmade scarf round her slender neck, the pale blue and dark blue striped item bringing out her eyes, while Rani thanked Jemima for the new stationary kit, Clyde got new professional sketching pencils, Sarah Jane a pair of handmade gloves, Gordy a framed photo of the pair of them with their grandfather, Kate a new set of gardening gloves with a framed picture of her, Gordy, Jemima and the girls.

The Osgoods gifts were very peculiar, Bonnie received an elegant floral notebook that had blank pages without lines while her twin received a book of poetry. A small message was scrawled on the back of a book mark already in inside it, it read 'Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death, you have it in spades. Petronella Osgood.' She looked at Jemima who gave her a subtle wink with a warm smile before glancing to her mother then back to the brunette. Petronella almost blushed but Jemima, under the guise of wiping her nose, gave her a sign that she would keep her secret. 

Then there was Luke, he had no present. Not until Jemima picked it up from the bottom of the bag and they snuck out into the back garden. "This is yours." She told him, holding out the small box to him. It was about the size of her palm, not very big at all, but had some weight behind it. Luke could tell that much when he accepted it and, at her eager nod, he opened it to reveal a gold circular pendant with the Lethbridge-Stewart crest on it. "Open it." She told him and he pushed down on the button that connected the item to a chain. It popped open to reveal a photograph of them both on the night of Jemima's prom. "So if we're ever separated, you'll remember what I look like." She admitted sheepishly, it was probably the lamest excuse she had ever let pass her lips.

"I could never forget you, Jem." Luke told her and she shrugged slightly before he took something out his pocket and told her, "Hold out your hand." She did looking perplexed, she had already gotten a woolly hat from him as a Christmas present what could this be. "To show I won't forget you and to show that I do love you. Have for a long time now." And in her palm he placed a silver band with a woven pattern going all the way round. On the inside was inscribed their names and Jemima looked up at him in shock and wonder. This was big. This was very big, they had only been a couple for two months but like Luke had said. He had loved her for a long time and she had reciprocated quite without her permission. If she accepted this ring, she would be cementing that bond, that commitment. "Please say something." Luke told her, his worried gaze flitting over every inch of her stunned features, fear beginning to set in the longer she took to say anything.

"This...This is a promise ring...Isn't it?" She asked thickly, due to emotion and her nose beginning to get bunged up again. Luke nodded, unsure how to take this. "Are you going to make me put it on myself or would you like the honours?" She asked with a small breathless chuckle as Luke relaxed and grinned, quickly closing his pendant and taking the ring to slid it on her middle finger. "And by the way," She paused when his features froze in fear, "I've loved you for a long time too." Luke grinned and, in a rare phase of losing his senses, wrapped his arms round her and picked her up. It caused her to laugh gently and let him spin around, her arms going round his neck and the pair sharing a deep and loving kiss.

Unbeknown to them, the group had gathered at the kitchen window and were watching with relieved smiles and joyful chuckles. Just as it had begun to snow, Kate felt a little touch at her hand and she looked and found that Petronella had taken her hand. Kate smiled a little wider and squeezed it gently, her thumb ghosting over the younger woman's knuckles, feeling utterly content.

In time, as they grew older and wiser, Luke and Jemima would marry, Gordy giving away his sister with Clyde being Luke's best man and Rani as Jemima's maid of honour. Sky as head bride's maid, the goddaughters as the remaining bride's maids, while their friends from University acted as ushers and friends on both sides. Kate and Sarah Jane stood tall and proud as parents, Sarah Jane with Jo Jones and her grandson Santiago beside her while Kate had the Osgoods, Petronella discreetly holding her hand when they were sat down. 

Luke and Jemima would go on to have three children, two boys and a girl; the eldest Alistair Peter Smith, the middle John Desmond Smith, and the youngest Katelyn Kayla Smith. Clyde and Rani had two girls, Sarah Jemima Langer and Jane Josephine Langer, both of whom were close with the Smith children. Sky took after her mother and never married, though many tried and failed, and adopted two twin boys, Mike Clyde Smith and  Joshua Christopher Smith. Gordy carried on the Lethbridge-Stewart name when he married a nice guy and had a boy and a girl, James and Skylar. 

Victoria Rothschild, true to her godmother's prediction, grew up to be a musician, even though her godmother still did the occasional batch of laundry for her. Pippa grew up to be just like her mother, joined Unit and became a captain under Colonel Joshua Carter, even if her godmother ended up making a spare packed lunch for her every so often. And Kayla, sweet little Kayla lived to the age of ten before losing her battle with cancer, she was buried beside her mother in their local cemetery but the little ones who came after her were told all the stories of her life and she was very much celebrated in the family as their little hero. Sarah Jane continued her journalism until she died after a long life, saving the planet and loving her family, absolutely adoring her grandchildren as they grew, and she was never forgotten. Not by anyone, not ever.

As for Kate, she retired at a good age along with her wife, Petronella Osgood, and enjoyed gardening and playing with their grandchildren while Petronella loved to read and play with them just as much. Kate, Gordy and Jemima spent the rest of their lives after this adventure, rebuilding their relationships, keeping in touch and often spending long hours in each others company. They got better, and in the end every wrong was made right and that was all that mattered.  
  
The End.


End file.
